A Friend In Darkness
by Slyrr
Summary: 3rd in the 'All Things Probable' series. See Kim in an epic adventure to save Ron, in which she joins forces with Grimm Probable, her mercenary opposite, to fight an even greater evil! Kim must overcome many villains, including her own inner demons...
1. Prologue

It was night, and a policeman strolled the dark streets of his beat in Go City. Things were quiet, except for the occasional chatter from his walkie-talkie, but in a city protected by famous super-heroes, things were often quiet. He walked through the plaza in front of a high-rise building, when he suddenly heard a tapping and scraping noise.

Taking out his flashlight, he looked around through the plaza, trying to find the source of the noise. He heard the tapping again, coming from higher up. He turned, and the beam from his flashlight landed on a large bronze statue of Hego that was built to honor Team Go. A faint _tap-tap-tap_ came to his ears again, and he turned his light, zeroing in on the noise. His flashlight revealed a large crow, which was perched on Hego's left arm. It stared with a baleful eye down at the policeman for a moment, then began pecking at the back of Hego's hand.

The policeman yelled up at him, angry that the bird was scratching at the statue of a man they all respected. 'Shoo!' he said loudly.

The crow ignored him. The policeman stared, seeing a flash of metal. There was some kind of spike or tool attached to the tip of the crow's beak, and the bird was using it to peck at the statue.

The policeman stooped and picked up a pebble, throwing it up at the crow. His first throw missed, but he picked up more stones, getting closer to the offending bird with each toss. 'Beat it!' he shouted. One stone struck the statue's arm a few inches from where the crow was perched. The crow let out one harsh croak and took flight, disappearing into the night sky.

The policeman stayed there for a few minutes to make sure the crow didn't come back. The statue was tall, otherwise he would have climbed up to see if the bird had damaged it. When nothing happened for a short while, the cop left the plaza, wondering if he should file a report on what he had seen. He decided better of it, and eventually his mind went to other matters.

On the back of the statue's left hand, grooved deeply into metal, three strange characters had been etched. And as the residents of Go City slept, they were unaware that there were other crows perched on statues across the city, tapping and scraping with tiny spikes on their beaks...

Coming Soon:

A Friend In Darkness

All Things Probable III

A Kim Possible Fanfiction

by Slyrr

Kim Possible is copyrighted by the Disney empire and it's subsidiaries

_Author: The TV series seems to be 'over', but the fanfiction community may never stop. The next installment of the "All Things Probable" series is coming, and with it a whole mess of K/R shipping, angst and villains galore. This story will feature Kim and Ron dealing head on with issues that have been on the surface of their relationship, but largely ignored. _

_And their evil mercenary opposites, Team Probable, will be a part of it. Opposition and duality will be at the forefront as usual, and I hope to end each chapter with a riddle to give a clue as to what the NEXT chapter will deal with. The reasons will be apparent as the story progresses. For example, coming in Chapter 1:_

_They are not clothes, but they can be worn.  
They are not cloth, but they can be frayed.  
You can get on them, but they may wreak havoc on you.  
What are they?_

_Post guesses and reviews. The answers will be included in the titles of following chapters..._


	2. Ch 1: Nerves

A Friend In Darkness

All Things Probable 3

A Kim Possible Fanfiction

by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and it's affiliates, etc. etc.

Chapter 1

Nerves

Or: Familiarity Needs Contempt

Kim Possible threw back her arms, smiling widely as the crowd cheered, pumped their fists and stamped their feet on the bleachers. The crisp air of the starry night was around her and the rest of the squad as she stood over fifteen feet above the ground at the top of a well-balanced pyramid of other cheerleaders. Despite the inky blue of the night sky, the lights around the football field blazed white in her eyes. She joined in a rhythmic chant that echoed across the stadium, even louder than the hollering crowd.

_'Go Mad Dogs! Go Mad Dogs! Goooooo Mad Dogs!!'_

Over half of the people in the crowd cheered even louder as they performed, though a large percentage, mostly the families of the visiting team, were shouting muted _boos_. But after being on the squad since her freshman year, Kim had long ago learned to tune out the random jeers and sneers from supporters of the opposing teams.

The Mad Dogs broke their huddle and Mr. Barkin returned to the sidelines while the football team got into formation. It was the last few minutes of the game, and the score was tied 30/30. While the opposing team wasn't much on offense, their defense was superb. Their offensive tacklers seemed able to weave through the blockers like water to take down the ball carrier. And their blockers had an uncanny knack for stonewalling any runners who tried to get into position for a pass.

Kim and the rest of the cheer squad knelt on the sidelines, waiting for any lull in the game so they could pump up the crowd again, but there was almost a hush as the Mad Dog quarterback placed his hand on the ball. The defenders faces were squinched and their teeth were biting hard on their mouth guards. They knew if the Mad Dogs got through, the game was virtually over and they looked ready to tear the heads off anyone who tried.

The ball was snapped and the initial tacklers and blockers began their scuffles, colliding with loud grunts. Two of the defending tacklers broke through the line, charging towards the linebacker, who was poised for a throw.

But just before he was plowed down by the tacklers, he threw the ball _backwards_ over his shoulder where it was neatly caught by a thinner player with the number 7 on his jersey. Ron Stoppable neatly sidestepped the pile of bodies in front of him and began running towards the defensive line.

The crowd roared, and Kim leaped to her feet with the rest of the squad, going into a practiced routine they had memorized since Ron had joined the team.

_'R-O-N! R-O-N! If he can't do it, no one can!_'

Ron was squealing and wailing as he found himself being targeted by the entire opposing team. The offensive tacklers were doing their best, but several defending players ducked through them and charged.

And as Ron saw several hundred pounds of angry football players barreling down on him, his thoughts went oddly cool and distant.

_'Gotta get across the lair and shut down the doomsday machine!'_ he thought. _'Wade's device will stop it, but it's gotta be touching the main console! Duck left, hustle, strafe - strafe - strafe! Synthodrone dead ahead, duck and roll! Shego and Killigan are on the right - oh man, why are THEY working together? Run back - run back - run back some more! Find inner peace and serenity! Peace not coming in middle of war zone! Run right - run faster! I said FASTER!! Oh no, monkeys! Main control panel dead ahead - must plant Wade's device - do it for Kim! Almost there... BOOYAH!!_'

And Ron skidded to a stop in the green grass of the end zone, relishing in the fact that he'd helped Kim save the world again for one brief second before he was flattened beneath a pile of furious tacklers.

A whistle blew and the crowd erupted in cheers while a large block in the stands let out a rushing moan of disappointment. Kim and the squad formed a line and did a set of taunting moves while the loudspeakers blared out music and the Mad Dog supporters joined them in a football chant that was nearly as old as football itself.

_Nah-nah! Nah-nah-nah-nah! Hey-heyyy! Good-bye!  
Nah-nah! Nah-nah-nah-nah! Hey-heyyy! Good-bye!_

Barkin had fished Ron out from beneath the opposing players and was shaking him heartily. There were only ten seconds left in the game, and the outcome was a foregone conclusion.

Seeing the numbers and the time left on the clock, Ron shouted _booyah_ once again and started doing a bizarre set of dance steps that had the opposing players looking at him first in confusion, then with amusement.

Kim faltered. Ron was doing the 'bon-diggety' dance - the dance she'd expressly forbidden him from ever doing in public. She didn't mind it when they were alone or in familiar company, but there were over a thousand people in the crowd. She heard a ripple of chuckles from the sections of the bleachers where the visitors were seated.

And suddenly Bonnie was right beside her. 'Nice moves.' she said. 'You mean after four years he hasn't worked on anything _new_? I mean it was a hoot the first time, but _really_...'

Kim sighed and shielded her eyes with her hand, feeling a stinging heat on her face as triumph was replaced with embarrassment. But Ron was still dancing, not noticing that the entire stadium had fallen silent except for the laughs from the other side of the bleachers.

'Stoppable!' said Mr. Barkin, his voice lowering to a dangerous growl. 'The game is ours - quit workin' it!'

Ron slumped back into a submissive posture at once, raising one hand in a feeble salute. 'Yessir, Mr. B.' he said sheepishly.

The opposing team used up all their remaining time outs, blowing the last ten seconds out into nearly ten minutes before the game finally ended and the Mad Dogs walked off the field with a 36-30 victory.

Kim and Ron left hand in hand after the game, making their way towards the Pink Sloth. 'Another win for the Mad Dogs!' said Ron cheerfully.

'All thanks to you.' said Kim warmly. 'But the dance? I thought we _talked_ about that.'

'Sorry KP.' he said, blushing slightly. 'I kinda got carried away.'

'Congratulations, Stoppable.' came a gruff voice behind them. Kim felt a tingle of worry as about four members of the opposing team, including the quarterback, stood glaring at them with expressions that were anything but congratulatory. 'Me and the rest of the team were wondering where you learned to run, but now we're more curious where you learned to _dance_.'

Ron didn't seem to catch the sarcasm or the hostility that was radiating from the four jocks. 'You like the bon-diggity moves?' he said cheerfully, doing a half-baked version of the bon-diggity dance. 'The Ronster's got a million of 'em!'

Kim elbowed him. 'So _not_ the time for it, Ron...' she muttered. If they tried anything, she was ready to leap into action, but whatever the four jocks had been planning, they seemed to have forgotten it as they broke out laughing while Ron danced.

'Let me guess.' said the quarterback. 'You learned it from Elaine on _Seinfeld_, am I right?'

Ron paused in his dancing, looking confused. 'Seinfeld... Seinfeld...' he said, rubbing his chin. 'Not familiar with it... Is it a law firm?' Kim sighed and put her hand back over her eyes.

'It's a _TV_ show.' said the quarterback, looking smug. 'Nine seasons? Highly successful?'

Ron's face brightened. 'Oh so _that's_ why your team loses so much!' he said. His voice carried no malice, he merely sounded like a student in class who finally understood a nagging question. 'You spend too much time watching TV instead of practicing!'

The four players shook their heads and started off. 'If winning means being such a _geek_, then enjoy your victory.' said the quarterback, waving them off.

Ron shrugged. 'Heh.' he said. 'I wonder what all _that _was about?'

Kim shook her head, and wondered with dread if pictures of Ron's dance were going to be in the local newspaper when they reported on the game...

Later at Bueno Nacho, Kim tried to ignore it as some of the other diners who were celebrating the Middleton victory pointed and whispered as Kim and Ron took their usual booth. She saw some of them doing 'torso only' versions of the bon-diggety dance and smiling. She felt her cheeks flushing again.

But her attention was soon drawn fully to Ron, who was inhaling the Nacos in front of him, then after washing them down with his soda, he let out a hearty belch.

'Ron!' said Kim, her eyes narrowing. 'We discussed this too - the face stuffing - _why_?'

'Uh - _hello_?' he answered. 'We _did_ discuss it! And as I recall the inarguable conclusion was _cheese_!'

'Mmm-hmm! Cheese!' squeaked Rufus, who was noisily devouring his own Naco.

Kim dropped her voice low, leaning in closer. 'Ron - don't you remember that thing about eating too much too fast?'

Ron's face went utterly blank. 'Huh?' he said.

Kim sighed impatiently. 'You tried to prove the health class wrong? Binge eating? Experimental serum? You became a fifteen-foot tall orange behemoth?'

Ron's mouth opened in amazement. 'What? When did _that_ happen?'

Kim stared. 'It was just a couple of months ago! You learned your lesson and said you'd eat responsibly!'

'I _did_?' Ron said. 'That doesn't sound like me at all!'

Kim sighed heavily and again covered her eyes with her hands.

* * *

Kim entered Club Banana later still. It was nearly closing time already, but she reasoned there were still a few minutes in which she could gaze longingly at the things she'd like to buy. Monique's face brightened as Kim came in.

'What up, GF?' she said. 'Dare I hope you're here to clock in and help out?'

'Only when I'm actually _scheduled_ to!' Kim answered. 'I just came in for some 'me' time.'

'I thought something blonde and cheesy was missing.' said Monique, looking around as if searching for something. 'I heard on the radio the Mad Dogs won again - so where is our hero of the hour?'

'Off at the arcade.' said Kim. 'And it's more like hero of the split-second. Once he saw he'd made the winning touchdown he kicked up his heels and...'

'He _didn't_!' said Monique, her eyes opening wide. 'In front of everybody? Not the...'

Kim nodded. 'The full BDD.'

Monique groaned sympathetically. 'Oh girlfriend - no_ wonder _you needed someplace to hide...'

'Not _hide_ so much as temporary refuge.' Kim shrugged, going through a set of shirts on their hangers, and taking a few out to drape over herself to see if they'd fit. 'Ron's the greatest, but sometimes he can be so...'

'Ronnish?'

'Yeah - _Ronnish_.' Kim answered. 'I wish he could be more...'

'Sophisticated?' said Monique. 'Intelligent? Tactful? Debonair?'

'Yeah...' said Kim quietly. 'Just a little... _better_ than he is now. I know he's capable of it, he just...'

'Graceful?' Monique was saying, ticking off on her fingers. 'Socially adept? Insightful? Reliable? Cultured?'

'Monique!' said Kim, though she was smiling.

'Don't interrupt girl, I'm only part-way through my list...' Monique said, grinning.

But Kim's wrist communicator let out a four-note beep and reflexively, she raised her hand and punched a button, bringing up Wade's face on the screen.

'Hey Kim!' said Wade, but then his eyes flew to Monique. 'Ah... _Monique..._' he said, and his voice went syrupy.

Monique backed out of view at once, the Valentine's Day incident still fresh in her memory. 'Later Kim,' she said quickly. 'I think I gotta - check the inventory - or something...' and she darted off towards the back room.

Wade was craning his neck as if trying to raise himself out of the communicator screen to follow Monique's exit. 'Wade!' said Kim sharply. 'You called! I'm over _here_!'

'Oh... sorry Kim.' he said, his voice slowly shifting back to a business-like tone. 'I just got word that Adrena Lynn is on the move.'

'There's a name I haven't heard in a while.' said Kim. 'I thought after that one encounter she joined a convent or something...'

Wade let out a chuckle. 'Not likely.' he said. 'She's still chasing the ultimate thrill - and at the moment that means coupling her normal stunts with robberies to spice things up a little.'

'Feed us a location and we're there!' said Kim. 'Once I pick up the Lord of the Dance...' Kim shut off the Kimmunicator and dashed out of Club Banana towards the arcade. Evil may never rest, she thought, but that always made evil tired...

* * *

Far away in a darkened dell beneath the overhanging crags of a mountain, a dome-like hut made of shaped tree branches sat with a thin plume of blue smoke rising from a hole in the very top.

A tall, skeletally thin man stood at the entrance. A number of crows were flocking to the hogan, perching on the branches of trees that were clustered around the hut at the forest edge. Their rude croaks and cries grated through the still air.

'You have done well my friends.' said Maze to the sable birds which jostled on the branches. 'Return to the forest, but be ready when I call you again.' And with a storm of flapping wings the birds scattered, rising into the air and wheeling towards the woods, their cries fading to silence.

Maze smiled and entered the hogan. Inside was a crudely formed statue, a roughened man-shaped lump of stone. Maze tied a curious brand to the palm of his right hand with a pair of leather straps and stood before the statue, bringing his hands together and closing his eyes. He began to chant in a low voice.

_Sipimottakiksi,  
Nikaahtomaana nitaanistsi'toyiiwa..._

Nothing seemed to happen at first, but as he continued to chant, the shadows which lay on the ground and on the walls of the hut began to shift, as if the sun were moving quickly from day to night. Maze's eyes squinted, and beads of sweat began to appear on his forehead. He trembled, gritting his teeth, and chanted louder.

_Sipimottakiksi,  
Nikaahtomaana nitaanistsi'toyiiwa..._

The shadows pooled like dark water around the statue, then crept up until it covered the stone figure like a cocoon of darkness. Maze's voice was strained and labored, and sweat was pouring down his cheeks, his face twisted with concentration.

_Emet - Sipimottakiksi,  
Emet - Nikaahtomaana nitaanistsi'toyiiwa!_

And suddenly he stepped forward, clasping his right hand on the left hand of the statue. There was a hissing sound, and Maze let out a cry of pain before drawing back his hand. Branded onto the back of the statue's hand were three strange characters. Maze fell to his knees, breathing rapidly while the shadows leaped back to the walls and the edges of the hut.

After a few moments, Maze's breathing steadied and he rose to his feet. He fixed his eyes on the statue and held out his palm. '_Bow_.' he said, simply.

With a sound like stone grating against stone, the statue sank to it's knees. Maze smiled. 'You will go to the entrance of this hut and stand guard there.' he said. 'You will allow no creature to enter or leave except for myself. Obey!'

The statue rose, and with a heavy thumping of its feet, it lumbered outside. Once it was there, it went still again. Only then did Maze allow his weariness to take hold. Gasping, he rolled himself onto a pile of soft straw. Though his body remained still except for his rising and falling chest, his thoughts raced.

_'Too long.'_ he thought, clenching his fingers around the metal brand still tied to his palm. _'It is taking too long! And even with the mingling of my shadow-medicine with the power of the Great Bear, the effort required to bring them to life is too taxing. My feathered servants are performing their tasks admirably, but there are too many!'_

He lay in silence for some time, his eye flicking towards the guardian, which stood motionless, waiting for his next command. But as much as his mind worked, he could see no solution. He had reached the limit of what he could accomplish on his own.

The Shaman of Shadows felt sleep approaching him, but it was with a bitter anger that he surrendered to his fatigue. And with a stab of hatred, the memory of a blonde-haired girl came to his mind. Her insolent voice echoed in his thoughts.

_'Well la-dee-dah. You want to be a super-villain and take over the world. There's a whole club of like-minded people out there waiting for you to join up...'_

And as sleep took him, he came to a realization that truth had been masked in the words of a fool. There were others out there who could help him. And he would have to find them if his plan was to succeed...

* * *

The Pink Sloth raced down the darkened city streets. Kim kept an eye on the road ahead of her, occasionally checking with the GPS map that Wade had up on the dashboard console. They were getting close to a factory that designed and manufactured sporting goods.

'You're sure she's in there?' said Kim.

Wade's face appeared on another screen. 'No doubt about it.'

'And the name of the game is...?'

'Industrial espionage.' Wade answered. 'Big Six is the leading designer of hiking, biking and exercise equipment. Trade magazines all look to this plant to see what the next hot ticket is going to be.'

'The perfect place for an adrenaline junkie to swipe secret designs for the competition.' Kim said, her eyes narrowing and her smile broadening in the way it always did just before she went into action.

'Adrena Lynn...' said Ron, buckled securely in the back seat. 'Didn't she disappear in the Bermuda Triangle or something?'

'If only.' said Kim. 'But soon - she'll be disappearing into cell block D!'

Inside the R&D section of the Big Six manufacturing plant, a ceiling tile was knocked loose and fell a few inches before being seized by a slender hand in a sports glove. Barely a moment later, a trim figure descended from the high ceiling on a zip line.

Adrena Lynn stopped her descent about four feet from the floor. Such an entrance was wholly unnecessary, as the security systems in the plant were not very sophisticated, but Adrena had always liked _Mission Impossible_, and couldn't resist aping the infiltration scene.

She fitted a stethoscope to her ears and placed the bell on the door of a wall safe next to where she hung. Cracking safes was hardly the thrill she craved. But she reasoned, if she gave herself a deadline and treated it as a race against time, it became more interesting.

She'd self-imposed a limit of two minutes for cracking the safe, and smirked as the safe opened after only sixty-seven seconds. She saw manila folders within, and thumbed through them, seeing the design specs and equipment schematics that she had been told would be there. She placed them in her pack when she suddenly heard the sound of a door bursting open and a blinked as a wash of light blinded her night-vision goggles. She pulled them off, glancing behind her.

'Hello Adrena Lynn.' said Kim, smiling. 'Found a new place to hang?'

'Kim Possible.' Adrena said, returning an equally smug grin. 'Haven't seen you for a while. I thought you joined a convent or something.'

Ron laughed loudly behind Kim. 'Ha! Convent! That's rich!'

'Ron!' said Kim, blushing.

'Sorry.' he said quickly.

Kim turned back to Adrena. 'Drop the secret plans and back away, Lynn!' she said, 'Or get ready for a thrill ride to prison!'

Adrena smirked. 'That sounded like a _challenge_.' she said quietly. 'Catch me if you can, teeny-bopper!' She tugged at her zip line, and suddenly shot upwards, disappearing smoothly into the hole in the ceiling.

At once, Kim fired her wrist grappling line and swept upwards after her, vanishing into the ceiling in pursuit. Ron looked at the tiny opening in the ceiling far above and then looked at his stomach which was still holding his grande-sized meal. 'Ah, yeah...' he said. 'Let's cut her off on the _other _end, Rufus...'

Rufus popped out of his pants pocket and nodded. 'Mmm-hmm!' he squeaked.

Kim felt the cramped space of the air vents as she crawled through them as fast as she could. She caught glimpses of Adrena Lynn, disappearing around various corners, twists and turns. The thumping, metallic noise of the vent walls buckling and popping back into place as they raced through them sounded in her ears. Dust was wafting into her mouth and eyes, making her tear up, but she kept pace with her quarry.

For several minutes this went on until Kim heard a thudding _clang_, which she knew from past experience must be the sound of Adrena kicking out another vent panel. And sure enough as she turned the next corner, she saw a shaft of paler light. She twisted and followed after, seeing Adrena plunging down through the air into the vast, sprawling void of the equipment assembly section of the plant.

Kim fired her grappling line again, swinging down as Adrena Lynn cast up a line of her own. They descended onto a criss-crossing network of conveyor belts. Kim landed on a conveyor line two meters above Adrena.

'Give it up, Lynn!' she shouted. 'We've been down this road before!'

Adrena grinned up at her. 'Then why don't we take the road less traveled?' She took what looked like a racquetball from her fanny-pack and threw it hard towards a control panel near the floor which was about twenty feet down. The sphere struck a bright orange button. An alarm buzz sounded, and with a sudden lurch, the conveyor belts started moving, and the intricate machinery started working, carrying parts and other equipment along the assembly lines.

Kim leaped down, but Adrena leaped up, landing with catlike grace and dashing towards a gigantic metal enclosure into which a number of bike helmets were being conveyed. Kim jumped back up in pursuit.

It soon felt like a game that combined tag with chicken. Adrena Lynn sped recklessly along the conveyor lines, dashing into and out of the machinery without hesitation. She looked back occasionally with a grin to see Kim right behind her.

Kim had several close calls going through the machinery, and narrowly avoided being mashed beneath a press that looked like it was made to steam crease jerseys and other clothing. Even Adrena Lynn yelped once as Kim saw her nearly get clipped by a revolving set of gears in another enclosure, but she was up and running and smiling again barely an instant later.

At last Adrena came to a point where she had gone through nearly every conveyor line and her face showed frustration when she saw that she had not been able to shake Kim off in the slightest. She flipped down onto the last conveyor line and rolled off to the side, racing towards a pair of swinging double-doors that led back into the factory hallways. But she skittered to a halt as Kim landed right in front of her.

'So _over_ Adrena!' said Kim, smiling. 'But I've got some latent hostility to work out if you really want to keep fighting!'

Adrena Lynn grimaced, knowing that she couldn't run to either side without Kim bearing down on her, and that she was no match for Kim's kung-fu. But the doorway between her and Kim suddenly burst open and Ron stumbled onto the factory floor, panting. He saw Kim and smiled, not noticing Adrena who stood barely three feet behind him. 'Made it!' he said, his voice a bit raspy. 'Where's Adrena? What'd I miss?'

Adrena smirked and with a sudden whirling kick, she swept Ron's feet out from under him and pushed, sending him tumbling into a conveyor line that had backpack straps and harnesses hanging from a support beam. Ron twisted and struggled, but was soon hopelessly tangled in a web of buckles and velcro straps. The line was carrying him towards another metal enclosure, which was emitting a dangerous hammering sound.

'Your choice, Kim.' said Adrena with a wicked smile. 'You can catch me, or you can act fast and save whatz-his-face from having the Big Six logo embroidered on every square inch of his body! Now wouldn't that be _freaky_?'

Kim glared for one brief instant before dashing off towards the conveyor line.

'Knew it.' Adrena said quietly, and then she disappeared through the doorway Ron had come through.

Ron twisted in a veritable cocoon of straps, and saw a number of armatures inside the enclosure he was heading towards. Each armature had a very sharp looking needle at the end. 'Kim!' he squealed. His feet entered the enclosure and he felt a merciless tugging on his shoes...

Kim seized his shoulders and pulled him back, preventing him from going into the enclosure any further. Luckily the support strut holding the straps and buckles was designed to allow anything hanging on it to be wheeled backwards at need. But the conveyor line was still struggling against her. 'Rufus - turn this thing _off_!' she shouted.

At once, a pink blur leaped out of Ron's pocket, scampered across the floor and scrambled up the raised podium of the control panels. Within moments there was a satisfying _beep_ and the conveyor belts slowly whirred to a halt.

Kim helped Ron pull himself free from the straps that held him. 'Are you OK?' she asked.

Ron looked down at his feet. There were small, circular patches on his shoes, with "BIG 6" emblazoned on each one. 'Oh no, I'm a _shill_!' he wailed, and he bent down, struggling to pull off one of the labels that were securely stitched in place.

Kim hit her wrist Kimmunitcator. 'Wade - Lynn slipped through the net. Can you track her?'

Wade looked uncomfortable. 'Uh - afraid not Kim. Things are kinda busy on this end...'

'What's busier than a danger addict who commits robberies?' Kim snapped, feeling frustrated.

'Well, there was _another_ theft across town. It took place during the chase with Adrena Lynn.' he said. 'I've been trying to keep tabs on both at once, but something happened that made me lose track of _both_.'

Kim sighed. 'OK, bad news first.'

'Bad news is - I've got no idea who did it. Whoever was hacking for them was good. They took out every surveillance grid for an entire block and covered it by disabling the local broadband carriers. There were so many customers calling in and complaining that no one noticed the electrical grid had also been tampered with.'

'And were you _one_ of those customers?' said Kim, raising an eyebrow.

Wade grinned ruefully. 'Well, when you make a living by being wired, you kinda notice when you're not. I only just got through re-routing my connections through an alternate set of servers...'

'Then how about the good news?' She said, glancing aside at Ron, who was wincing as he danced around behind her, peeling embroidered logos off his shoes.

'There was no good news.' Wade shrugged. 'The thieves got away clean with with some kind of experimental hydroponic formula.'

'We're talking super plant food?' said Kim. 'Any of our current bad boys angling for that kind of stuff?'

'If they are, I haven't got the low-down on it.' said Wade. 'I'll keep digging though. How's Ron?'

Ron tore the last label off at that minute, falling onto his back with a grimace. 'He's... fine.' said Kim, her voice flat. 'Keep us posted.' She put out a hand and helped Ron back to his feet.

Things were uncomfortably quiet as they got into the Sloth after leaving the factory. 'Sorry KP.' Ron said, looking abashed. 'If I hadn't screwed up, you might have caught her.'

'I'm used to it.' she said, but caught herself at once. 'I mean - it's no big. She's bound to slip up, and when she does we'll be right there to catch her.' It felt like deja vu, as they'd had many similar exchanges over their missions. But Ron said very little on the drive home, and neither did she.

* * *

Adrena Lynn stepped into the empty gray parking lot of an abandoned warehouse. Litter was blowing here and there as a mild night breeze swirled around her. She stopped near the galvanized steel of the corrugated wall, which was shadowed by the overhanging roof. And in the shadows she saw a lone figure standing at his ease, leaning casually against the wall next to the black rectangle of an open doorway.

'So - did you have fun?' said a smooth male voice.

Adrena Lynn smiled. 'Did I ever! Covert break-in, Olympic-style safecracking, and a breakneck chase through a gauntlet of working assembly equipment! After that, bungee jumping seems kinda trite!' She held out the manila envelopes containing the files she had taken. 'And a clean getaway with the goods to boot.'

The figure shook his head, gesturing away with his hand. 'I never said I _wanted_ those files.' he said. 'I just suggested it might be a fun challenge for you to _try_ and take them.'

Adrena Lynn looked confused. 'All that and you don't _want_ them? What the heck am I supposed to do with them?'

'Beats me.' he answered. 'You can return them if you want - or sell them for however much you think you can get. I really couldn't care less.'

Adrena put the files back in her pack. 'Then what was the point of all this?'

The figure seemed to chuckle. 'The _point_?' he said. 'I didn't think you needed one. I thought the thrill of the challenge was all you wanted. Or maybe the rumors about you going soft are true...'

Adrena glared, clenching her fists. 'Going_ soft_?' she snarled. 'Who's saying that?'

'Easy...' said the figure soothingly. 'Just rumors I've heard here and there. Though this caper seems to have dispelled a lot of them - at least to my mind. I'm all about helping troubled villains, and you've been off the radar for a long time. A woman with your drive and skill deserves a _reputation_. So if you found this job amusing, there are others that may occur to me. Jobs that could make you famous. Interested?'

'Bring 'em on!' Adrena said, smiling defiantly.

'Coolness. We'll be in touch. Until then you might want to sell the goods before they get too hot. Or there's a trash bin just down the alley. Your choice. Catch you later.'

Adrena nodded curtly and ran back the way she came, disappearing into the darkness. For a moment all was quiet, then a female voice sounded from the doorway behind the figure in the shadows.

'Man alive, I thought _I_ was blonde. But she takes the cake.'

An athletic looking teenage boy stepped out from the eaves of the warehouse and into the dim light of a nearby lamp post, running a hand through his spiked auburn hair. Grimm Probable smirked as a girl with shoulder-length blonde hair came out from the doorway and stood beside him. Rhonda Fatigable stared out after Adrena Lynn. Her long-tailed weasel, Rueful, was perched on her shoulder, nodding and chittering softly.

'She is who she is.' Grimm said quietly. 'And the words 'useful idiot' come to mind. We needed an obvious theft to smokescreen the one we were hired for - and they don't come any more obvious than Adrena Lynn. Her ham handed thrill seeking caught Wade's attention right away - even _trying_ to be stealthy she just couldn't keep herself off the grid.' He took out his communicator. 'Jade - we're done. And not only that, we've still got Adrena on the hook for more of the same if we need it.'

A girl with an Asian complexion smiled out of the viewscreen. Her dark hair was pulled into two pony-tails and there were rainbow streaks of color on either side of her temples. 'Spankin!' she chirped.

'How were things on your end?' said Grimm. 'Did Possible's hacker see anything?'

'He freaked when he lost internet and took his eyes off the ball, just like you said.' she smiled. 'How'd you know Adrena Lynn would buy into it?'

Grimm laughed. 'She's a junkie for this sort of thing. All you have to do is toss out the word 'thrill' and she can't stop herself. See you back at home. Just make sure Drakken doesn't renig. I'm not sure why he wants this hydroponic formula, but I don't want him to think the job was too easy or he'll ask for a discount.'

'Done and done!' There was a _beep_, and Jade vanished from the screen.

Rhonda didn't say anything as they walked towards a sleek motorcycle that was parked near a high chain link fence that surrounded the warehouse. She stayed silent as Grimm unlocked the bike. 'Something wrong hot stuff?' he said, taking out their helmets and handing one to her.

Rhonda put her hands on her hips. 'Actually yeah.' she said. 'You've had me working my butt off for months since we came back from Kwitcherbeliakin, studying Blackfoot, communing with nature, practicing to the wee hours - all so we can get ready to face off with pom-pon and her doofus-boy sidekick. Well I'm stoked for it right enough. So how come we're still doing everything all sneaky?'

Grimm smiled, getting onto the bike. 'Cause the sneaky stuff is our _thing_.' he said. 'I don't know how much truth was in it when Sakituya hinted that your Bear powers shouldn't be used carelessly, but I want to keep them secret just in case.' Rhonda still looked sulky. 'Relax - It's only a matter of time before we meet Possible's gang again.' Grimm said. 'Still, that's no reason to make things _easy_ for them. We've got a lot of aces up our sleeves now, but if we can keep Possible betting all her money on weak hands, so much the better.'

Rhonda put on a pouty face and started bouncing on the balls of her feet. 'But I wanna fight her _nooooowwwwww..._' she said, sounding like a kid wanting to go out for ice cream. But Grimm leaned in and kissed her. Rhonda quickly went still, and a dreamy expression was on her face when Grimm pulled back.

'It'll happen.' he said softly. 'But for now - let's go home and divvy up the loot - _partner_.' Rhonda smiled, blushing, and then got onto the bike behind Grimm, putting her arms around him as they sped off into the night.

Coming Soon:

_People always want me to arrive early,  
but they are rarely happy to see me._

_What am I?_


	3. Ch 2: Warnings

A Friend In Darkness

All Things Probable 3

A Kim Possible Fanfiction

by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and it's affiliates, etc. etc.

Chapter 2

Warnings

'Ah _ha_!' said Dr. Drakken, looking over the documents. 'This formula will be just what I need for my latest bids in world domination!'

'Bids?' said Grimm, who was going through the money Drakken had handed him during the exchange.

'Yes,' said Drakken, tucking the papers lovingly into his blue overcoat. 'I've decided that _multi_-tasking is the wave of the future! I failed in the past because I sank all my efforts into one big scheme at a time. But now I've got _several_ schemes in mind and I'll be hitting them one after the other - _bam, bam, bam!_' He punched his fist into the air with a maniacal grin. 'Kim Possible may be able to foil one or two of them, but not all!'

'You dream big, Dr. D.' said Grimm, nodding to Rhonda and handing her the briefcase full of money. 'Anything we can do to pitch in, let us know. For the normal fee of course.'

Drakken smirked. 'Well, it may not be necessary this time out.' he said. 'But, uh, don't tell Shego that you stole this formula for me. She gets kind of..._weird_ when I use people besides her - no idea why. Plus I'll be making the distribution mechanism for this formula myself and I want her to think it's _all_ my own design...'

'Mum's the word.' said Grimm, as he and Rhonda backed towards the exit of the lair. 'Call us, beep us if you want to reach us.'

Grimm, Rhonda and Rueful made their way towards the _Ksikkihkíni,_Grimm's motorcycle which Jade had fitted with special magnetic repulsion thrusters. As they were putting on their helmets and getting ready to take off, a four-note beep sounded from Grimm's hip pouch. He slipped his communicator out and activated it. 'Sitch me, Jade.' he said quickly.

Jade's face shimmered on the tiny screen. 'No rest yet for the wicked.' she said, smiling. 'We just got a call for a job you may want to look into. Details in 3, 2, 1...' And a string of text scrolled up on the communicator, which Grimm read.

'Woah.' said Grimm. 'That could be a challenge.' His eye strayed to Rhonda, who was nudging Rueful into her backpack. He smiled and looked back at his communicator. 'But I think we're ready for it - if it's not a trap. Do the usual screenings and if it's clean, make arrangements with the client.'

Jade popped back onto the screen and nodded. 'Want to use... _her_?' she said.

Grimm nodded again. 'Yeah.' he said thoughtfully. 'We may need another distraction on this one. Have you got something lined up that will pull her in?'

Jade winked. 'Actually I've got just the thing.'

'Set it up so we can get the ball rolling at an hour's notice.' Grimm said. 'But this time let's stagger things so she starts _first_. And keep your eyes peeled for Wade. Somehow I get the feeling we won't be able to use Adrena Lynn much longer.'

As Grimm put the communicator back in his hip pouch, Rhonda sat behind him with her arms already wound around his waist. 'What was that?' she said. 'We've got another job _already_?'

'Yup.' said Grimm, activating the bike. A wing unfolded from the nacelles on either side of the bike and with a nearly silent humming sound, they rose slowly into the air inside the hangar of Drakken's lair. 'But it may also be a chance for _you_ to get the action you've been hankering for...' And then the_ Ksikkihkíni_ shot out through the wide bay exit and into the sky.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Ron sat in Bueno Nacho, looking uncomfortably across the table towards Kim. They'd passed the school day with their normal affectionate banter, but he could tell Kim was still fuming over Adrena Lynn's escape the previous night. How much of the fuming was over _his_ role in letting her get away he couldn't tell, but he'd been making several overtures during the day to try to make up for it, including opening doors for her, offering to carry her stuff and making overly enthusiastic agreements to her every pronouncement.

'Yeah! Right on!' he said, pumping his fist in the air.

Kim stared. 'Ron, are you even _listening_ to what I'm saying?' she said, with one eyebrow raised and the other lowered in that way that always held him hypnotized.

'Uh...' he said, staring uncomfortably at the floor and running one hand behind his neck.

'I said, _don't you think you're agreeing with me too much_?' Kim said, switching eyebrows.

Ron flushed. 'Oh! Um... _no_?' he said cautiously.

Kim laid her hand on his. 'Ron, I know you're still upset that Adrena Lynn got away.' she said softly. 'But I said - it's no big. We'll get her next time.'

Ron bit his lip, not sure how to respond. So many times this had happened in the past - him doing something clumsy or haphazard which let the villains escape. Him apologizing, her saying that it was no big and that it would be different 'next time'. He thought back to all the times he'd helped instead of hindered, and concluded that his record was about 50/50. It wasn't good enough - not for someone who supposed to be watching her back.

'Kim, I...' he started, but then her Kimmunictor beeped.

'Hold that thought!' she said, and brought up Wade's face with a _beep_. 'What's the sitch?'

'Adrena Lynn - again.' Wade answered. 'I've got word that she's gone to 1414 Ath Lane and she's robbing...'

'_Russ Cueler_?' Ron said, leaning his head in. 'The famous Iron Man tri-athlete? She's robbing _his_ mansion?'

Wade blinked. 'Yeah - you know him?'

'Not _personally_.' said Ron, looking excited. 'But everyone on the team keeps going on and on about him, and Mr. Barkin drives us by his mansion every so often to motivate us with 'dreams of what might be' if we work hard.'

'Spankin.' said Kim. 'So you know where it is.'

But Ron was standing up. 'Oh man!' he said. 'I'm gonna meet Russ Cueler! Gotta check my hair! Be right back!' and he dashed off to the men's room, disappearing inside.

Kim stared after him. 'He never checks his hair for _me..._' she said.

Wade was smiling faintly up at her. 'Well, you _do_ remember what happened the last time you got him worked up over his hair, right?'

Kim smiled back. 'Don't remind me. We'll be on our way as soon as he gets back. But have you got any ideas as to why Adrena Lynn is suddenly so active again? I mean, for almost two years, nothing, now she's back and more annoying than ever. It's...'

'_Freaky_?' said Wade. Kim looked at him, her eyes narrowing.

Ron was desperately trying to flatten the small poof of hair at the crown of his head with tap water. When he finally got it wet enough that the hairs were only pointing up slightly, he splashed his face and washed, wiping dry with a paper towel. _'Oh wow - Russ Cueler!'_ he thought. _'Only thing cooler would be if it were Angelina Jolie...'_

Ron came back and nearly rounded the corner leading out from the men's room onto the restaurant floor when he heard Wade's tinny voice over the communicator. 'Maybe Ron can guess something about Adrena Lynn's new groove. Have you asked him?' he said.

'Ron?' said Kim, sounding as if she were surprised by the question. 'He wouldn't have any ideas on how to forestall a criminal mastermind - we're talking about a guy who used to take off his shoes so he could to count to twelve. Homework is one thing, but when I want to talk to a super-genius I call _you._'

Ron's mouth fell open, his arms hung limp at his sides. He felt as if someone had just tied fifty pound weights to each of his hands and then sucker-punched him in the gut.

'Adrena Lynn's not really a mastermind either.' Kim said. 'We just have to be more careful and we can run her down. Or just make sure that Ron distracts _her_ instead of _me_ this time.'

'Well, I'll keep an eye on things from the outside.' Wade said. 'Good luck, Kim.'

Kim shut off her Kimmunicator and looked up to see Ron stepping slowly out from the alcove leading to the restrooms. There was a curious look on his face that she couldn't quite read. 'Let's go Ron.' she said. 'Are... you OK?'

Ron shook his head as if he had been called on suddenly in class while daydreaming. 'Yeah.' he said quietly. 'I'm... just excited is all.'

He was utterly silent as they got into the Sloth and started on their way through traffic with the orange sunset sky fading to purple-gray. Kim seemed focused on driving, and Ron was staring at the glove compartment, his hands clenched over each kneecap.

_'That's what Kim really thinks about me?'_ he thought._ 'That's how she talks about me when I'm not around? Oh man...'_ But he couldn't deny he'd screwed up on their last mission. He squared his shoulders. He hated to see her upset, or to have her thinking that he wasn't any use on their missions. _'I can try harder this time - be a little less random.'_ he thought. 'Uh... Kim?' he said tentatively. 'I think I've got some ideas on... maybe how to catch Adrena Lynn.'

Kim sounded surprised. 'Really?' she asked. 'What are they?'

_'D'oh!'_ Ron thought, immediately seeing how his plan had backfired. He didn't _really_ have any ideas, and he put his brain into an emergency scramble. 'Uh... well...' he dithered, trying to make like he was carefully choosing his words instead of sounding like Porky Pig, 'When we first met her years ago, she was, like _faking_ all her stunts you know? But she's a lot..._ less_ fake now. So maybe she's trying to... prove she's not a fake by... targeting _real_ sports figures?'

Ron felt his cheeks burning with embarrassment as he finished. _'Stupid, stupid, stupid!'_ he thought. _'You're supposed to be changing her mind about you being a useless distraction, not confirming it!'_

Kim didn't take her eyes off the road, but her voice almost dripped with patronizing agreement. 'Yeah...' she said. 'You think?'

Ron ploughed on, trying to salvage himself. 'And maybe we can, uh, get ideas about what she'll do by... uh, looking over the... blueprints of Russ Cueler's mansion?' He squinted, hoping this sounded _reasonable_.

'Yeah...' Kim said again. 'Well, go ahead and do that. I'll be planning all the ways I'm gonna kick Lynn's kiester through every room!'

Ron sighed inwardly. For some odd reason, he could picture Mr. Barkin very clearly in his mind's eye, glaring down at him and saying, _Better to shut up and let everyone think you're an idiot than to open your mouth and prove it!_ He reflected on the fact that he actually found Barkin's advice profound, and then again that he understood what _profound_ meant. But he was committed now, and as they continued speeding to their destination, he used his own communicator and asked Wade to forward the blueprints and designs for the mansion. Wade looked just as surprised as Kim had sounded, but he sent Ron the information anyway, and Ron found himself looking over floor plans and building schematics as they drove.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

In the skies above Go City, Grimm Probable and Rhonda Fatigable sat astride the_ Ksikkihkíni_. A communicator on the dashboard beeped and Grimm let his thumb stray to a button next to it. Jade's face sparked onto a small screen.

'They're en route to Cueler's and it doesn't look like they're any the wiser.' she said, her voice sounding thin and distant amidst the air that moved around them. 'Looks like you're good to go.'

'How about Wade?' said Grimm, looking down and the lights of Go City beneath them, which shone with misty halos through the clouds between them and the ground. 'Any trace of his nose?'

'Actually no.' said Jade. 'He just got done uploading the floor plans for Cueler's mansion to Ron's communicator.'

Grimm raised an eyebrow. 'Weirdness.' he said quietly. 'Don't let your guard down, Jade. It could be a dodge. But we're going in regardless. If there's any hint of a trap, let us know - even if you're _not_ sure.' Jade nodded and the screen went black. He looked back to Rhonda who was shivering slightly in the chill air. 'You wanted action, Rhonda.' he said with a smirk, 'Well here we go!' Then the_ Ksikkihkíni _shot towards the ground, the vast spikes and spires of Go City's many buildings spreading out beneath them like a 3-dimensional grid...

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Adrena Lynn went over the shelves in a wide, high-vaulted room, which was lavishly furnished, with track lighting set in brass mounts along every wall. The room had the air and appearance of a museum, and several items were highlighted on the underlit shelves. She looked at a baseball, slightly browned and crackled, which was sealed in a plastic sheath and mounted on a stand, then looked at a card mounted next to it. 'Signed Mickey Mantle.' she said. 'Nice!' then she swept it into pack she was holding open in front of her. She walked slowly through the room, picking other items out and taking them.

There was a muffled growl of protest, and she paused to look down at a large, muscular man who was seated on the floor, bound hand and foot, and with a white gag over his mouth.

'You know, you _should _be thanking me Russy.' she said, with a mischievous slant in her eyes. 'This place definitely needed a woman's touch.' And she took several more items including a Lou Gehrig glove and a Babe Ruth cap, stuffing them into the already bulging pack. 'The most valuable collection of sports memorabilia all under one roof - talk about convenient! Maybe you should have sunk a little less money into your collection and a little more into security!'

'You're gonna wish you had a security detail of your _own_, Adrena Lynn!' said a voice behind her.

Adrena Lynn turned and looked back towards the wooden oak doors that led into the room. Kim and Ron were standing there, and Kim was glaring purposefully at her. 'Well, well.' said Lynn. 'If it isn't the loseress. I seem to remember her being a _threat_ at some point, but the name escapes me...'

'Kmmm Pfffmbmm!' exclaimed the gagged Russ.

Adrena Lynn lowered her arm, letting the strap of the heavy pack slide through her fingers until the pack hit the red carpeted floor with a muffled _thud_. 'Round _two_.' she said, then she dashed off to a smaller door on the west side of the room.

At once, Kim dashed after her. This time, Ron was close behind Kim. 'She's heading for the exit!' Kim yelled.

'No... she's heading towards the swimming pool and tennis court.' Ron panted, striving to keep pace with her.

'How do _you_ know that?' Kim said.

'It was on the floor plans.' Ron called, as they thumped their way through numerous hallways and doors, the faint sound of Adrena Lynn's footsteps still ahead of them. 'Russ has an indoor basketball court, volleyball court, racquetball court, a shooting range and a foosball arena. This hallway leads to the swimming pool, which leads to the other...'

'I get the picture!' Kim said. 'Were there any shortcuts to the other rooms we can use to cut her off?'

Ron was trying to run and look at his communicator at the same time. 'Yeah, but there's no guarantee she won't air-vent her way past...'

'Take the shortcut!' Kim said firmly. 'I'll stay on her tail!' Ron hesitated, then at the next set of turns, he checked his communicator and took a hallway that split off to the left.

Kim pursued Adrena Lynn at top speed, occasionally thudding into corners as she took several blind turns. But eventually she entered a wide, open area with a sweeping, curving set of huge windows that looked out into the night sky like a glass bubble with a gridwork of huge panes. This room was huge, with a large rectangular area in the center that looked like a tennis court, though the net was missing and the playing area was oddly _shiny_. The floor was concrete and her footsteps suddenly echoed in her ears. She could see Adrena Lynn ahead of her.

As she sped towards her quarry, Kim reached the tennis court and saw that it was made of what seemed to be transparent Plexiglas, gleaming and polished, and beneath it was the rippling blue of water. Lynn was breathing heavily, and stopped at the opposite end of the court, staring back at Kim. 'Not as young as you used to be?' said Kim, going into a ready stance and approaching her warily.

'Hardly.' said Lynn, smiling. 'Just wanted to show you the _first_ thing I kiped off of Russ before you showed up.' and from her fanny pack, she took out what looked like a complicated remote control. She hit a button on it, and Kim suddenly felt the tennis court lurching beneath her feet.

Lynn flipped and leaped backwards, obviously prepared for what was happening, but Kim stumbled and fell to the side. She put out her hand to arrest her fall, but yelped as she fell with a splash into what was now an Olympic-sized swimming pool. The two halves of the Plexiglas shield that had been the tennis court had swiftly retracted, disappearing neatly into the sides of the enclosure, while the poles that normally would have supported a tennis net snapped down into the floor and a diving board rose up from the opposite end of the court.

Lynn stepped up to the edge of the pool, looking down at Kim who rose to the surface of the water with a sputter. 'Neat, huh?' she said, waving the remote control in front of her. 'Russ has all of his little sports rooms wired so he can set things up on his own depending on which one he wants to play. He had plenty of room for a separate pool and a tennis court, but you know how rich people are. They can't resist an expensive gimmick so they can show it off.'

Kim was swimming rapidly for the edge of the pool, but Adrena Lynn held out the remote control again. 'Uh uh, teeny-bopper!' she said, and Kim was forced to duck as the Plexiglas shields slid quickly out again. Too late to hoist herself out, she pounded the glass above her as the two halves locked together with an ominous _click_.

Kim had a moment of panic, but it quickly subsided. There was a good three or four inches of air between the water and the glass above her, so there was no immediate danger of drowning or suffocating - doubtless it had been designed that way in case anyone ever got locked in accidentally. But the glass afforded her a perfect view as Adrena Lynn stepped above her and looked down, winking and blowing her an insolent kiss. Kim gritted her teeth and glared back at her, her hands pushing uselessly against the Plexiglas shield.

Adrena Lynn turned as she heard a noise behind her, and from the opposite end of the pool area, Ron Stoppable burst into the room. She frowned momentarily, then looked back down at Kim. 'Second string's here.' she said. 'Stay_ cool_, Kim!' And she ran back through the door Kim had come through.

Ron saw only Adrena Lynn staring at the floor, then running back and away from him. He sped across the tennis court, wondering where Kim was and why she hadn't cut off Adrena Lynn yet. As he crossed the court, he heard a muffled thudding sound that was not his own footsteps and paused to look down.

_'Russ's combo tennis court and pool!'_ he thought admiringly. _'Man the rich sure know how to live! Believe me, I know...'_ but his heart suddenly lurched with shock as he saw Kim's rippling form beneath him, pounding on the glass. 'Oh _crud!_' he yelled out loud, and he stopped, looking around wildly for some kind of control panel on the walls or near the court that might control the Plexiglas panels. But there was nothing to be seen. He looked down and saw Kim had raised her Kimmunicator and was using the wrist laser to try and bore through, but he could tell that Adrena Lynn would be long gone by the time it burned a hole large enough for her to climb out.

Quickly he took out his own communicator and scrolled through the floor plans. 'Rufus!' he shouted, and Rufus dutifully shot out from his pants pocket with a squeal. Ron pointed to what looked like a small shed at the opposite end of the court. 'There's manual controls for the pool shield in there!' Rufus saluted like a marine, then scampered off to the shed. There was a padlock, but the door itself was an alligator folding style, which was rickety enough for Rufus to squeeze underneath.

Ron was back and looking down at Kim. 'We're getting you out of there!' he yelled, not sure if Kim could hear him through the thick shield. Obviously she could, because at once he saw her shaking her head and yelling back.

'I'm fine!' she said, and Ron could hear her muffled voice faintly through the Plexiglas. 'Go after Lynn!' Ron hesitated, his desire to stay and make sure Kim was all right fought with his resolve to obey her order. Kim must have sensed it because she yelled again, even louder. _'Just go!!'_

And Ron was racing back through the corridors. They were eerily quiet, with only his footsteps and breathing breaking the silence. He knew it was hopeless. Adrena simply had too big a head start on him now, and there were numerous paths she might have taken. _'OK - legs are too short, so it's time to use my head.'_ he thought. _'Lynn knew about Russ's house and used it to trap Kim - but to pull it off she needed to move fast.'_ and clear as a bell, he remembered Lynn putting her pack down on the floor - her heavy, bulky pack - filled with stolen items that she couldn't carry with her in the chase towards the pool. But now that Kim was delayed, with no one but the sidekick to worry about... _'She's going back for the loot!' _ the thought hit him like an electric jolt. He brought up the building schematics on his communicator again, and with wonderful satisfaction, he saw another route back to the display room that was just a little shorter...

Adrena Lynn dashed back into the display room and saw Russ Cueler working his wrists, still trying to free himself from his bonds. He had managed to pull off his gag, and gasped as he saw her enter the room.

Lynn went straight to the backpack full of Russ's collectibles and hoisted it onto her back. 'Well it's been real, Cueler.' she said, winking at him. 'Hope you collect more stuff someday so I can steal that too!'

_'Hey! Lynn!' _

Adrena Lynn started and whirled around seeing Ron barreling into the room. _'How did he get here so dang fast?'_ she thought briefly. Then she did the only thing she could think of and put her arms around Russ's neck in a loose sleeper hold. 'Back off!' she said. 'Or Cueler picks up where you and I left off that first time!'

But Lynn knew she was dealing with more than she could handle. Russ was a strong athlete, and if he started putting up a struggle, there was no way she could hold him hostage and fend Ron off at the same time. And Ron glanced to the side, seeing something on the shelf to his right. And as he saw Adrena Lynn shifting her stance, taking her eyes off him for a brief moment, his hand flashed out.

_'Forgive me, Tom Brady...'_ he thought, then he gripped a signed football in his hands and threw.

Adrena Lynn looked back up and saw a flash of brown spiraling towards her, then squealed as the football hit her square on the nose. She stumbled backwards, releasing Russ, and then felt the air knocked out of her as Ron sent her crashing to the floor with a flying tackle. Russ toppled off to the side.

Lynn gasped as she fought to draw air into her lungs and glared angrily up at Ron, who was holding her down with his gloved hands. 'You're like a bad penny!' she gasped as soon as she could. 'Maybe I've been worried about the wrong guy!'

'Maybe you shouldn't have tried to drown my GF!' he said back.

Adrena snarled. 'Well don't let any of this go to your _head_!' and she snapped her neck forward suddenly. It wasn't a particularly strong head-butt, however it was enough to startle Ron and get him to lose his grip. Adrena Lynn used the purchase to twist and roll, sliding out from beneath him.

_'Ron!'_ Adrena Lynn looked up again as Kim charged into the room, still dripping wet. Adrena unshouldered her pack and swung it around viciously, catching Russ in the chest. Still bound by his wrists and ankles, Russ fell backwards and crashed through the window of the display room.

Both Kim and Ron shouted, diving and seizing Russ by either ankle. They arrested his fall, their arms straining against the weight of his body as he dangled three floors above the ground. The next window over broke and they saw Adrena Lynn rappelling down the side of the mansion by a zip line, then dropping off into the thick shrubbery that surrounded the eaves of the bottom floor.

They got Russ pulled back so that his knees were hooked around the sill of the window. 'Can you hold him, Ron? I'm going after her!' and without waiting she tumbled out of the window, using her grapple line to lower herself. She saw the dim shape of Adrena Lynn racing through a garden and into the darkness towards the gates of the mansion.

Russ was no longer in danger of falling, but Ron found pulling him up by himself was no mean feat. 'Why do the pros always have to be so _heavy_?' he shouted, managing to get Russ's entire lower body dragged back through the window.

Kim ran across a neatly landscaped lawn and into some kind of botanical garden, complete with stone fountains and a hedge maze. It was dark, and she looked around for Adrena Lynn as she entered a flowerbed with soft, mossy soil beneath her feet.

There was a piercing white light and the thrumming roar of an engine. Kim gasped and went into a duck and roll as a red bullet motorcycle jumped in a smooth arc over the hedge maze, rushing down towards her. The cycle missed, and Kim got steadily to her feet, ready for another pass. But the lithe form of Adrena Lynn was waving as she gunned the cycle and roared towards a greenhouse. She popped a spectacular wheelie and the cycle surged upwards, using the slanted roof of the greenhouse as a ramp and the motorcycle flew up and over the rear wall of the mansion, disappearing on the other side.

Kim heard the sound of shock absorbers buckling, then the sound of an engine gunning, and finally the cycle horn sounding off a taunting two-note _beep_. Kim gritted her teeth. The Sloth was parked at the front of the mansion, and it would take her at least two minutes at a full run to find her way back to it. By then Adrena Lynn would be long gone. She kicked the ground in frustration, and started jogging back to the main entrance...

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Hego stood on guard at the Go City Museum. He glanced outside the windows into the night sky, seeing stars sparkling in the distance and he sighed. The museum had asked for additional protection to guard their prized exhibit, a gigantic emerald that was nearly as large around as a basketball.

Normally at least one of the other Team Go members would have been there helping him. _'I can't believe they were invited to another Heroes Cruise.'_ he thought a bit resentfully. _'And that I wasn't invited! I mean my shift was totally free this time! It's not like one of them couldn't rotate out and stand guard here! Honestly, they've been on a cruise already, when's my turn?'_ But he quickly shook his head and cleared those thoughts from his mind. It was an honor to serve Go City as a super-hero, and a duty from which he would not shrink. _'Unlike Mego_...' he thought, chuckling.

Still, there was no denying that guard duty seemed pointless at the moment. The night was quiet and the building's normal security systems seemed more than capable of fending off any garden-variety thief.

He stood at attention in front of the glass case containing the emerald, which the museum staff had nicknamed the BFG (for 'big freakin' gem'). For several silent hours he had remained that way after the museum had closed. His heels were beginning to ache and he found himself glancing with a certain degree of longing at a bench by the edge of the room.

Just as he was succumbing to his desire to ease his aching feet, there was a sudden thumping noise and the laser grid which surrounded the BFG powered down. The surveillance cameras which had been whirring quietly back and forth all night fell silent; the tiny red lights which indicated they were active blinked out.

At once Hego forgot his aches and fatigue. He braced himself, backing closer to the BFG, ready for anything. There was only one reason why the security systems were shut down - a thief must be in the building. But Hego smiled. Once the thief showed himself, they'd find that just turning off the security wouldn't be nearly enough.

He stood ready for several seconds until at last he saw two figures standing half in shadow across the room. He was just about to launch into a zinger he had thought up in advance for just such an occurrence. _'The museum doesn't open until tomorrow evil-doers! But the Go City jail is open 24/7!'_ But as the light from the lamps cast across the lower bodies of the two figures, he saw something that caused his prepared hero speech to die on his tongue. He saw that the two persons were wearing brown cargo pants with hip pouches at their sides. One figure seemed male, and the other had the definite curves of a female.

Hego narrowed his eyes, trying to see better through the dim light. 'Kim Possible?' he said. 'Is that you? I thought you'd changed outfits...' But he fell silent as the figures stepped forward. They were both wearing what looked like ninja hoods, so he couldn't see their faces.

Behind his mask, Grimm muttered to Rhonda in a low voice. 'All right GF - time to field test. I know he's no Kim Possible, but...'

'Yeah, I'm sure I'll be_ really_ bored going up against a guy who can break bricks with his fists.' Rhonda sounded nervous, but resolved. 'Let's _do_ this thing!' Then she jumped forward, screeching and making amateur kung-fu poses. Hego stared at her, looking wary and confused.

'Feeble protector of Go City!' Rhonda yelled. 'Behold the face of your defeat!'

'I, uh, can't behold your face, you're wearing a mask...' said Hego dryly.

Rhonda faltered for a second. 'Hey, _shut up_!' she said, recovering quickly. 'Prepare to fall before the all-powerful _Ninjella_!' Behind her, Grimm sighed softly, putting his hand to his forehead.

'Ninjella, eh?' said Hego, smiling and powering up his glow. 'Well you must be new in town, otherwise you'd know better than to GO up against Team Go!' He charged at the figures, and they both darted to the side. The taller figure rolled, then flipped forward gracefully and landed next to the case containing the BFG, reaching his hand towards it.

Hego turned towards Grimm and started racing towards him. Rhonda saw Grimm neatly dodge a strike from Hego's glowing hand. She knew Grimm could avoid him, but if even one of his blows landed...

She pulled open a velcro patch on her upper left arm, revealing a curiously shaped birthmark and then brought her hands together in front of her, chanting softly.

_Omahkkiaayowa, Omahkkiaayowa,  
Nitohpoksiiyikitapiiyi!_

As she chanted, the mark on her arm flared with a blue glow, which spread out until it surrounded her like a misty flame...

_Omahkkiaayowa, Omahkkiaayowa,  
Nitohpoksiiyikitapiiyi!!_

Then Rhonda cried out with a shout that echoed through the room like the roaring of a bear, and Hego paused, staring back at her. He had been striking at Grimm, who was neatly avoiding his strikes, but none of Grimm's return blows had any effect against his glow.

'Hey blueberry - you forget about _me?_' Rhonda shouted at him. 'The all-powerful Ninjella will_ not _be ignored!'

Hego sniffed. 'Sorry, but my code of honor won't allow me to hit a mere girl!'

Rhonda stepped right in front of him, and had to admit that based on appearances alone, she could understand his dismissive attitude. She, a willowy girl, in front of a veritable titan who was a head and a half taller and under normal conditions, many times her match in strength. But she smiled beneath her mask. 'Then it's time to crack that code!' she said, and she seized his wrist, whirling in place with a judo toss and sent Hego flying across the room, crashing through the wall with a _boom_ that shook the entire building.

Grimm looked with satisfaction at the gaping hole in the wall while chunks of marble skittered across the floor and clouds of dust spread from the point of impact. 'Remind me never to cheese you off.' he said warmly.

There was another blasting sound as Hego dashed back in through the hole he had made, looking surprised but unharmed. 'Not bad, Ninjella.' he said, cracking his knuckles. 'Maybe it _is_ time I became an equal-opportunity crime fighter!' and Grimm cartwheeled out of the way as Rhonda and Hego clashed again.

Grimm had to admire Hego's strength. He wasn't sure what the limits of Hego's glow were, but when he had his glow on, he seemed able to lift anything. But he could also tell just by looking that Hego had come to rely too heavily on his glow. His attacks were clumsy, and he seemed to have no fighting style beyond simply trying to land a punch or a kick. Grimm analyzed Hego's style like a scientist studying a germ under a microscope. Hego was obviously accustomed to just one of his punches putting an enemy down for the count and that he had no training or plan to deal with anyone who could match him. _'Advantage - Probable.'_ he smirked.

To her credit, Rhonda was going toe-to-toe with him in a high powered game of mercy, their hands locked as each tried to overpower the other. _'Come on Rhonda,' _Grimm thought. _'You're smarter than that...'_

And at just that moment, Rhonda shifted her stance and rolled Hego over her shoulders in another toss that sent him blasting through the opposite wall. But he was coming back again a few seconds later. 'Taking too long hot stuff.' Grimm called to her. 'Bring it on home!'

Rhonda nodded and stood with her fists clenched, her eyes suddenly squinting shut in enormous concentration. Her hands glowed blue and the mark on her arm flared brilliantly.

'_Spirit Strike!!'_

Rhonda slashed the air in front of her with a broad stroke, and there was a thundering _bang_. From each of her fingertips, a sickle-shaped curve of while light lashed forwards, speeding along with a roar like a freight train.

Hego crossed his arms in front of him, bracing himself. He hadn't met a bomb blast or a mad scientist death ray that could hurt him as long as he was ready and had his glow up. But in the splintered second in which the sickles of light touched him, he saw they were slicing through his glow like scissors through wrapping paper.

He cried out in pain, reeling backwards, and his glow flickered and died out. He felt suddenly weak and drained, and even holding up his arms seemed to be taking all his strength. He looked up and saw a flash of gray as Grimm's foot caught him in the gut with a flying kick. Hego wheezed once and then collapsed on the floor, unconscious.

Grimm stared down at the fallen super-hero with a sense of satisfaction and pride. 'Way to go Rhonda.' he said. 'Normally we'd have to sneak around or trick him into dropping his glow before taking him out. You're the _man_! Well, sort of.'

Rhonda stepped forward, admiring her handiwork. 'Yeah,' she said proudly. 'We just went up against _Hego_ and handed him his walking papers! Booyah!'

Grimm took out his communicator. 'Cameras down?' he said.

Jade's tinny voice answered back. 'The whole museum is blind for a good ten minutes.' she said. 'You're clear to make off with the goods!'

'You rock, Jade. See you back home!' Then he took the glass case from off the BFG and placed it in his backpack, with some difficulty getting it through the flap at the top. He pulled off his mask, smoothing out his hood hair while Rhonda did the same.

She punched her fist in the air and gave Grimm a sly smile. 'You know, we make a pretty good team!'

Grimm glanced at her. 'What have I told you about using the "G" word?'

Rhonda chuckled and pointed at him. 'Sorry - I mean we make a pretty _evil_ team!'

Grimm smirked. 'We always did.' he said. Then he took out a sticky note with "_01100110011010010111001001110011011101000010000001101000011000010110110001100110_" scribbled on it and stuck it to Hego's chest as he lay motionless on the floor.

Rhonda looked at it quizzically. 'Uh, what's _that_ for?' she said.

Grimm smiled. 'Right now, Kim and Wade are probably putting two and two together.' he said. 'They'll know that Lynn's crime spree is just a distraction for _our_ heists and they'll be watching. I'm just leaving them something to _think_ about.' And without another word he took her by the hand and they sped towards the exit.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Kim was surprised to see a news wagon outside the mansion as she reached the front entrance. _'How did they get here so fast?'_ she thought, but a cameraman and a reporter were swooping in on her even as the thought went through her head.

The reporter was a slim man with a dark complexion and an aura of great enthusiasm, the kind of guy who, if asked how he was feeling that day, would describe the entire day in great detail from start to finish and not give the listener a chance to respond. The cameraman seemed the normal type, wearing a jacket with the news channel logo and a baseball cap.

'A. U. Dibble, MIDX News.' said the reporter without preamble, pushing his microphone forward so it was between himself and Kim. 'Reporting live with teen crimefighter Kim Possible at the scene of a daring robbery perpetrated by ex-TV sensation Adrena Lynn. Ms. Possible - we've heard rumors that Adrena Lynn managed to escape. Any comments?'

Kim felt momentarily abashed. Her hair was still stringy and lank from her dunking in the pool, her shirt was still covered with damp soil from rolling through the garden. _'Bonnie's probably loving this...'_ she thought briefly. 'I... have no comment at this time.' she said curtly.

But Dibble was not to be deterred and pushed his microphone even closer. 'Is it true that you fell into one of her traps?'

Kim's mouth nearly fell open. _'How did he know that?'_ she thought. But she composed herself quickly. 'The theft was...' she started, but was immediately cut off again by Dibble.

'We heard rumors there was a brief hostage situation involving the owner of this mansion, famed tri-athlete competitor Russ Cueler. Can you confirm that, Ms. Possible?'

'It's true.' came the strong, smooth voice of Cueler, who came out of the front door along with Ron at that moment. He was rubbing his wrists, and Rufus was perched on his shoulder, still gnawing at the frayed ends of the ropes Lynn had used to tie him. Russ stepped in front of the camera, looking totally in his element. 'That crazed Lynn character had me tied up and was using me to protect herself.'

'And so Kim Possible rescued you?' said Dribble, snaking in his question as Cueler paused momentarily for a breath.

'Actually, no.' said Cueler. 'I was rescued by this boy right here.' he said, putting a large, powerful hand on Ron's shoulder and pulling him in beside him. 'Him and his... uh... what _is_ this thing, a shaved weasel?'

'It's a naked mole rat.' said Ron. 'His name's Rufus.' Rufus hopped from Russ's shoulder to Ron's, giving the 'thumbs-up' sign.

'And what's your name, son?' said Dibble, pushing the microphone right under Ron's nose.

Ron looked slightly surprised, but responded. 'Ah... Ron. Ron Stoppable.' he said, smiling faintly. But Dibble was already pulling back and facing the cameraman.

'And there you have it folks. Kim Possible fails - Ron Stoppable sails.'

'Hey!' Kim shouted from behind Ron. But Dibble continued as if he hadn't heard her.

'Is the former daredevil stuntwoman too much for the famous Kim Possible? Only time will tell - but let's hope next time she has her new partner Ron Stoppable alongside her to hopefully forestall any further crimes.'

Ron raised his hand as if he were in one of Barkin's classes. 'Uh, excuse me, I'm _not_ a partner, I'm the sidekick.' he said. 'And what do you mean _new_? I've been with her since the day she started saving the world! Hasn't _anyone _noticed?'

Cueler was smiling genially. 'You're being noticed now, kid.' he said. 'What sport do you play? Football?'

Ron smiled. 'How did you know?'

Cueler chuckled. 'No one could pull off a pass and tackle like that unless they'd been spending time on the field.' he said. 'You saved my life kid - and I like to reward people who save my life!'

Ron's brightened. 'All_ right_, a reward!' he said, but then a wary expression spread across his face. 'Uh, it's not a _job_, is it? 'Cause I've kinda already got one.'

Cueler looked surprised. 'A _job_?' he said. 'What kind of lame reward would that be?'

Ron looked intently at Cueler. 'That's _exactly_ what I thought! But then someone hit me in the arm...'

'A reward is something you're supposed to remember _fondly_.' said Cueler. 'How would you like a tour of the place?'

'Boy, _would_ I!' Ron said, doing an in-place hustle.

'Ron, you _saw_ most of the mansion when we were chasing Adrena Lynn...' said Kim, staring after the MIDX news crew as they loaded their equipment back into the van.

'Including my famous Iron-Man pantry?' said Cueler, smiling.

'Oooh! Oooh!' Ron said, his eyes flying wide. 'The one with it's own cheese vault?'

'That's the one.' said Cueler, seeming pleased to have such an enthusiastic fan. 'Come on and I'll have the chef whip up some of my patented _quesorandes_.'

Ron was practically drooling as Cueler led him back towards the mansion. 'The _big_ cheese thing? Oh man Rufus, I am _so _glad we skipped dinner! KP, you coming?'

'Just a second.' she called after him. 'I'm checking in with Wade.' She stared glumly up at Ron as he disappeared back into the mansion, and activated her Kimmunicator. There was something about the events of that night that just weren't _feeling_ right to her. Adrena Lynn seemed to know they would show up, and she seemed to have a plan ready for her. And the news crew had a little too much knowledge about what had happened in the mansion. 'Wade - is Adrena Lynn a former playwright? Cause I'm starting to think this whole thing was staged.'

Wade looked confused for only one brief instant before answering. 'Don't think so, Kim.' he said. 'What's on your mind?'

'Can you do a background check on MIDX mobile news? They were right here when it all went down. Someone had to have tipped them off.'

Wade was typing at his keyboards. 'News agency computers are usually pretty heavily encrypt... OK I'm in.' he said, smiling. 'I've got to find a way to say that faster so I can finish _before_ I hack into a system.'

'They legit?' she asked.

'Looks that way.' he said. 'I'm going through their recent phone messages... Yeah, they received an anonymous tip-off that Russ Cueler's mansion would be robbed that night, and that you were going to be there.'

'And who's our tipster?' she said, growling.

Wade typed for a few seconds longer. 'Sorry Kim.' he said. 'Whoever it was routed their call through over a dozen different lines - it's untraceable. And...' he cupped an earpiece with his hand, listening hard. '...the caller used a distorter to mask his voice.'

'Or _hers_.' said Kim darkly.

Wade shrugged. 'I wouldn't put it past Adrena Lynn to have tipped them off herself. We all know she's a hog for the spotlight.'

'Maybe.' said Kim. 'But then why go to all the trouble of disguising her voice to the news hounds?'

'Good question.' said Wade, but he did not supply any answers.

'Chew on it and see what you can come up with.' said Kim. And a sudden thought occurred to her. 'Were there any other crimes that took place when this one was going on?'

Wade was typing quickly over his keyboard again. His face looked up in surprise. 'Actually yeah. There was a theft at the Go City Museum, the reports just went over the wire. The BFG emerald was stolen - and it looks like Hego was knocked out by the perps.'

'Hego knocked out?' Kim whistled. 'That's heavy-duty...'

'He's being treated at the Go City Hospital.' said Wade. 'And I just got a message over your website that he wants to talk to _you_.'

A moment later, Hego's face blipped onto her screen. 'Greetings, citizen Possible!' said Hego. He was smiling, but clearly lying in a hospital bed, still in full costume.

'Hego.' said Kim. 'How are you doing?'

'I'll be fine!' he said heroically. 'I just feel a bit drained is all. But I was wondering... were you in Go City tonight?'

Kim blinked. 'Uh... no.' she said. 'I've been here trying to take down Adrena Lynn.'

'Ah.' he said, looking uncomfortable. 'And... can anyone _verify_ that?'

Kim looked darkly at the stretch of driveway in front of the mansion where the news van had departed. 'Yeah, I get the feeling it'll be all over the evening news.'

Hego shrugged. 'Well I... just thought I'd make sure. It's not like I thought you had...' he trailed off uncomfortably, but Kim guessed what he was driving at.

'The thieves who clocked you at the museum - are you saying they looked like _me_?'

'Oh no, no...' Hego said, shaking his head. 'They were wearing masks actually - it's just that they looked like they were wearing... what looked like your old outfit.'

Kim frowned. 'But... that line was discontinued by Club Banana.' she said. 'No one has those outfits anymore, not even Smarty Mart.'

'True.' said Hego. 'One of them called herself Ninjella, and she definitely had powers that you don't. She seemed almost as strong as I am, and they had some kind of... energy blast that took all the fight out of me. Very peculiar. And they left something at the crime scene.' he held up a yellow sticky note that had a series of ones and zeroes crammed into it from top to bottom. 'Does this mean anything to you?'

Kim shook her head. 'I'll have Wade look into it. Thanks for the heads-up, Hego.' said Kim.

A moment later, Wade's face popped up on the screen. 'Ninjella?' he said. 'Sounds like someone without much imagination.'

'How about the note?' said Kim.

'It looks like binary code.' he said. 'I'll run it through and see if it translates to anything.'

'You rock, Wade.' she said. 'Keep me posted - I have to find Ron and stop him from eating all of Russ Cueler's cheese.'

As she made her way to the mansion, Kim fought with a curious feeling that she could only describe as resentment. Just the other day, she'd been wishing that Ron was a little _better_. And driven perhaps by his bad performance against Adrena Lynn at the factory, here he had stepped up a little and somehow gotten the media attention that normally would have been fixed on her. _'I want him to be better.' _she thought. _'But not better than me.'_ And at once she realized how selfish that sounded, even in her head.

She wrestled with herself. There were plenty of times when she'd stood at the sidelines cheering for Ron - she did it at every football game. So why did she feel so... _territorial_ over Ron saving the day instead of her? He'd saved the day on his own lots of times - that business with the Fearless Ferret, Monkey Fist, and in Hank's Cupcake Factory.

_'But there wasn't a media crew reporting it those times.'_ she thought, and Dibble's words sounded again in her mind. _'Kim Possible fails... Let's hope next time she has her new partner Ron Stoppable alongside her...'_

She'd never gotten_ negative_ press before - and she quickly covered up her anger, reasoning that the resentment she was feeling was simply against the press for having chosen to take that particular angle and being so brazen about it. She hitched a smile onto her face as she found her way into Russ Cueler's huge kitchen and saw Ron and Russ engaged in what seemed to be an eating contest. Rufus hit a timer which sent a ringing _clang_ through the room.

'Hmm-hmm! Tie!' he squeaked, and the cooks and servants around the table were clapping heartily. Russ was chuckling as well as he could while still swallowing the last of his _quesorande_.

'For a kid your size, you pack it down pretty fast!' he said. 'No one's ever kept pace with me before!'

'I is what I is!' said Ron jovially.

'Well with moves like that, whoever you're dating is one lucky gal.' he said, slapping him hard on the shoulder. 'If you ever need a ride when saving the world, I've got a private jet I use to get to my competitions - just have your friend Wade beep me!'

Ron turned to Kim. 'Hey KP did you hear that? Now _I've_ finally got a contact!'

Kim's smile felt more brittle, but she maintained it. 'Great Ron.' she said, suddenly aware that she was speaking through her teeth, which were clenched together. 'But we'd better get going - Adrena Lynn isn't going to catch herself.'

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

The bell clanged with its usual jarring peal through the halls of Middleton High School the next morning. Kim stood in front of her locker, fishing out the books for her next class. Ron was still grinning from ear to ear over the previous night's events when Mr. Barkin suddenly appeared as if from nowhere, bellowing in his ear. 'Stoppable!' he shouted.

Ron jumped, cringing reflexively as he always did whenever Barkin showed up to chew him out over something. 'Ah! I didn't do it, don't hurt me!' he said, but Barkin had, for lack of a better description, a smile on his face. He scowled so much most of the time that it seemed somehow unnatural, but his voice, while still yelling, was cheerful.

'I saw the news last night - Russ Cueler! And you actually managed to save him without losing your pants! Good form Stoppable - good form!'

Ron sighed with relief, but Barkin was pulling him to his side and marching him towards his office. 'Is it true you _toured_ the mansion? You saw the _inside_...?' They disappeared around the corner, and Kim sighed. Ron had been lionized by almost everyone, asking him about Cueler's mansion, congratulating him on his bravery and asking what Russ was like. They seemed at least as interested in hearing about Russ as they were in talking to Ron. Only Bonnie had said anything to Kim directly. 'By the way Possible - I loved your new hairstyle. Usually people wash the mud _off_ before they leave the spa.'

Her attention refocused as Wade's face suddenly glowed out from the computer screen in front of her. 'No news yet on Adrena Lynn.' he said. 'But this is twice now that a more serious robbery has taken place while we were distracted by Ms. Freaky. Coincidence?'

'If coincidences are just coincidences, why do they feel so _contrived_?' said Kim. 'Is there anything about the Go City robbery and Adrena Lynn's caper that can be linked?'

'No.' said Wade, shrugging. 'Just that the robberies that we haven't been focused on have involved items that are either more valuable or more important. But I did run Hego's note through my system. It _is_ binary code, and it translates to two words.'

'Don't leave me hanging.' said Kim, raising an eyebrow.

'_First Half_.' said Wade.

Kim stood thinking. 'First Half?' she said at last. 'First half of_ what_? An even bigger job?'

Wade was shaking his head. 'No idea. I ran the note through every scan I could think of. It's the same kind of post-it that you'd find at any office supply store, the writing was done with a standard No. 2 pencil, the handwriting is deliberately sloppy and distorted so it can't be identified. There are no fingerprints on the note, no skin oils, no perfume, nothing that could let it be traced in any way.'

'So they're cautious.' Kim said resentfully. 'We'll just have to keep a closer eye out.'

'Should we take our focus off Adrena Lynn?' said Wade.

'No.' Kim said quickly. 'I don't buy for one minute that Adrena Lynn is the mastermind of all this. If she's a puppet, then someone's pulling the strings. So far she's the only link we've got between her and these other robberies. Once we catch her, we can follow the strings right back to the puppet-master.'

'Any ideas on _how_ to catch her?' Wade said questioningly.

'Knowing her like we do, can think we can come up with _something_ freaky enough to get her attention...' Kim said, smiling almost wickedly.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Bates finished dusting the study at Monkey Fist's manor, letting out a quiet sigh of satisfaction as he looked around the spotless room. His master had been gone for many weeks, and there was no word from him as to when he might return. He was often away, seeking ancient monkey-related relics that he said were of a mystical nature, so he didn't trouble too much over it. Still, this particular absence had been longer than others, and without so much as a phone call.

But Bates prided himself on his loyalty, and so he continued to maintain the manor, keeping it clean and orderly for the day of his master's return - at least until the money ran out. He gave himself a mental pat on the back for another job perfectly done. The Monkey ninjas had not returned either, and maintaining the household was much easier without their constant brutish behavior.

As he turned towards the heavy oak doors to the study, he did not notice that behind him a patch of shadow in a corner of the room was spreading out like an inky stain. A tall, thin man stepped out from the midst of the darkness, and moved swiftly towards the distracted butler.

Bates had barely heard the footsteps behind him and begun to turn when a wooden staff dealt him a solid blow to the head and he fell unconscious to the ground. Maze stared around, and his eyes fell on the desk where a number of books, scrolls and other items were neatly arranged.

He picked up a DVD case, marked "Han-Yono?" and placed it in the player that was positioned in front of the sitting chair. Maze scrolled through a number of scenes, showing maps, three strangely shaped keys, and ending with shaky clip footage of a bruised and battered Monkey Fist. He was sitting in the chair and talking to a black-clad monkey which was holding a camera and taking pictures rapidly.

'Tell me again why you thought I would feel better if you _documented_ this...' said Monkey Fist, his voice sounding aggravated.

But then there were another set of scenes which showed Monkey Fist and a pack of monkey ninjas who were obviously in haste to go somewhere. 'Put that thing away!' said Monkey Fist impatiently. 'We must reach the museum containing the second half of the Yono scroll! Once we discover the shrine's location, the Han and ultimate Monkey power will be mine - and those fools at Yamanouchi will tremble at my feet!' Then there was a burst of static, and everything faded to black.

Maze rewound and paused, stopping at a point where the camera panned across Monkey Fist to the desk, showing the torn half of an ancient looking scroll. He turned back to the desk and saw the scroll lying under a glass case on a stand off to the side. He lifted the glass dome and took the scroll, tucking it into a pouch which hung from his hip. Then he strode to the mullioned windows to the study and threw them open.

He struck the floor twice with butt of his staff and a murder of about seven large crows fluttered down, landing on the stone sill and croaking. Maze stared at them, and the birds stared back at him with burning yellow eyes.

'_Find Yamanouchi_.' he said. And at once, the black birds rose into the air with a rustling flap of wings and flew off into the distance. He watched the birds vanishing off into the twilight sky, and turned back as he heard a soft moan.

When Bates awoke and got to his feet, it was to find an empty study. There was no sign that anyone had been there besides a pair of open windows, and the DVD player still displaying the frozen image of his long-absent master...

_Coming Soon:_

_Scarlet. Rabbit. Bell. Answer?_

_Author notes: The plot thickens. Some of you are probably thinking - 'Why did the writer make Kim so snarky to Ron in this chapter?' I should say that all the jibes and comments she made about him and his intelligence were either paraphrased or directly lifted from actual TV episode comments she has made about him. This story, as hinted in the prologue, deals with issues in Kim and Ron's relationship that have always been on the surface, but never addressed directly. This is one of them. Overall, when speaking to others about Ron, Kim's language about him has been patronizing at best, sometimes flat-out mean. So please don't blame me - Kim said 'em first on her own TV show..._

_Post reviews and guesses for the answer to the next riddle!_


	4. Ch 3: Red Herring

A Friend In Darkness  
All Things Probable 3  
A Kim Possible Fanfiction

by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and it's affiliates, etc. etc.

Chapter 3  
Red Herring  
_Or: False Trails and Tribulations_

The stately walls of the Middleton Museum and their fluted columns had a pearly, glowing look as the afternoon sun filtered through their marble surfaces. Ron was inside the museum, in a quiet, secluded area that displayed older exhibits. He was staring at a statue of Ronacus, which had been moved from the main exhibition area some time ago and placed in this more out-of-the-way section by the sidelines. A dusty cobweb trailed from the statue's ear to the shoulder. He sighed, glancing at the statue of a masked warrior, which had been placed in a position of greater prominence.

His echoing footsteps sounded lonely in his ears as he made his way back to the main exhibition area, which had been temporarily closed off. Wade was on his knees at the foot of a large plinth, and was fiddling with a lot of wiring that he was connecting to various components which were being installed in a circular ring in the floor.

Kim was there as well, looking over things closely. There was another person standing next to her, a short man with a roundish belly, wearing pointed shoes, an immaculate pin-striped suit, and stroking a pencil moustache on his face. Kim turned to the museum administrator. 'Thanks again for helping us out, Mr. Curio.' she said.

Curio smiled affably. 'It is no trouble, Ms. Possible.' he said with a thin French accent. 'It is the least I could do after you saved our priceless portraits from that horrible Camille Leon.'

'No big.' said Kim. 'Anyone could have spotted her trying to smuggle them out underneath a mu-mu. So not the brightest penny in the fountain.'

Ron found himself chewing his lip. Despite his good performance on their previous mission, he couldn't help wondering if Kim still considered him a 'dull penny'. He had thought Kim would be pleased that he'd done so much better, even if it was mostly luck. But after that night, he had felt some definite frosty vibes.

'How's it going, Wade?' Kim said, stepping up to the raised dais where Wade was busy welding components and checking sensors.

'We'll be good to go pretty soon.' he said, smiling. 'I've had this on the drawing board for some time - can't wait to see how she rides!'

Mr. Curio looked with some trepidation at the circular rut which surrounded the plinth. 'If I may ask, Ms. Possible, what _is_ your friend doing to my floor...?'

'Don't worry.' Kim answered. 'He's just installing additional security. We'll have your floor as good as new once we're done. But depending on how well this works, you may want us to leave it in.'

Ron dug the gleaming, polished floor with his heel. 'How do we know she'll even come here?'

Kim turned to him and smiled. 'Actually, _you_ can help us answer that question.' she said. 'You and your new contact, Russ Cueler.'

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

On the outskirts of Go City, there was a mountainous region. At the peak of one of the mountains was a bizarre structure in the shape of a huge bird nest. But instead of twigs or logs, the nest was made out of welded girders painted brown and had an array of communication equipment set at the top, several dark windows and a heavy set of double-doors.

Grimm Probable and Rhonda Fatigable walked toward the doors, which hissed open in front of them, then closed behind them as they entered.

'Nice place.' said Grimm, looking around the interior of the lair. They were in a circular enclosure lined with shelves. Cluttered on the shelves was an assortment of gems, gilded statues, crystals and other such items which sparkled and cast patches of rainbow which danced on the surrounding walls. It was like being inside a skating rink with disco balls. In the center of the area was a throne, which was also built to resemble a birds nest with a high back and armrests. In front of the throne was a semi-circular desk with various controls and equipment.

Rhonda stroked Rueful's head as he lay draped around her shoulders. 'I can't remember hearing you mention who the client was.' she said. 'Aviarius?'

'An understandable presumption, but incorrect!' came a dramatic, booming voice. 'Aviarius is competent in his own right, but he pales in comparison to the power of... _The Magpie_!'

Rhonda turned and saw a man entering from a door on the far side of the chamber. He was dressed in a black outfit with a cape that was attached to either wrist and draped behind him to form what looked like a pair of feathered wings. He wore a bizarre helmet with a protrusion at the front that looked like a long, sharp beak. A white circle with a black bird in the center was emblazoned on his body suit.

'Magpie.' said Grimm, nodding while Rhonda's mouth fell open at the sight of their client. Her eyes twitched and she quickly closed her mouth again to stifle a chuckle. Grimm took off his pack and opened it. 'As promised, we present to you the BFG emerald with our compliments.' And he took the glittering gem from his pack. It was struck by several beams from the other shining objects in the room and lit up like a green flame.

The Magpie's mouth fell open in his own turn and Rhonda could see a trickle of drool running down his chin as he gazed at the emerald. Even behind the small narrowed slits of the eye holes in his helmet, Rhonda could tell his eyes were sparkling and vacant looking. But he recovered quickly and held out a briefcase, moving to his throne and setting it down on the desk.

'You have done well!' he said in a deep, resonating voice that he was obviously trying to make impressive. 'The Magpie congratulates you on your work and is pleased to give you the promised payment!'

Grimm and Rhonda moved to the desk as well, where Grimm set down the emerald which the Magpie immediately seized and held aloft. Grimm took the case and gave it to Rhonda with a nod. She opened it and checked the money, nodding back to him. 'Well, enjoy your jewel.' said Grimm. 'And if you need anything else, beep us.'

'The Magpie will do so!' he thundered ridiculously. Rhonda raised an eyebrow at him, but he was posturing, still holding the emerald like the Statue of Liberty holding its torch. 'The Magpie has many friends who may need your services!'

'Why does the Magpie keep referring to himself in the third person?' said Rhonda.

Grimm quickly leaned and whispered in her ear. 'The same reason the all-powerful Ninjella does.' he said.

The Magpie glanced at her, his face looking slightly discomfited. 'I... uh, The Magpie now requires solitude in which to conceive his next brilliant plan.'

'Oh yeah?' said Rhonda, sounding skeptical. 'And that is...?'

'It is of no concern to you what the Magpie does with this prize!' said the Magpie mysteriously. 'Suffice it to say that the Magpie operates on levels of thought that far outshine those of normal men!'

'You're just going to put it on a shelf and _look_ at it, aren't you?' said Rhonda.

The Magpie seemed annoyed. 'Hey - I _like_ shiny stuff OK?' he said.

'Of course you do.' said Grimm, now pulling Rhonda towards the exit. 'We'll be on our way now - and again, thank you.'

As they left the Magpie's hideout, Grimm spoke, his voice sounding confused and concerned. '_Not_ a good idea to make fun of the client.' he said.

Rhonda shrugged. 'Come on.' she said. 'The _Magpie?_ He just made it so _easy_...'

'If the money's good, they can dress in tutus and call themselves _The Foofie Squad_.' said Grimm. 'It's important to keep them feeling good about whatever gimmick they've got going so they'll keep the money rolling in. Bottle the sarcasm until we're at home - you can diss them all you want behind closed doors.'

Rhonda looked down. 'Sorry GP.' she said softly.

Grimm took out their helmets from the trunk of the bike and laid a hand on Rhonda's shoulder. 'I know how it is.' he said. 'You're feeling more confident now, and you _should_. It's only natural to feel a little more relaxed, both in action and with clients. But that's the next phase of training we'll need to cover. How to rope it in. Confidence is a great thing, but only when it's justified. If you let it get you carried away it's a recipe for _overconfidence_, and that's the sort of thing that can have the reverse effect in a fight, leading you to do things that invite defeat. You want an example, keep a close eye on Adrena Lynn.'

Rhonda looked surprised. 'I donno, she's been doing great so far...'

'Yes, she has.' said Grimm, getting onto the bike. 'So look for her to make a totally dumb move any time now.'

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

It was several days later, and Kim stood in the Middleton Museum looking on from the side of the room at the main exhibit area. The area had been roped off and several museum-goers were looking on with curiosity as news cameras were being set up inside the enclosure. It was none other than Dibble and the MIDX news crew. Dibble was chatting with Russ Cueler, who was also there, and standing next to Russ was Ron. Ron looked slightly nervous, as if he was wondering how he'd gotten there, but Rufus was standing on his shoulder, already hamming to the cameraman.

Kim looked into her wrist Kimmunicator. 'Is it all set up?' she said, keeping her voice low. 'Russ agreed to it?'

'He did indeed.' said Wade, also speaking warily as if he were afraid of eavesdroppers. 'So the only people who'll know are Cueler, Curio, Ron, me and you.'

Kim looked at the floor surrounding the plinth. If she hadn't seen Wade working on it with her own eyes, she would never have guessed that anything had been done to it. It was smooth, flat and innocent looking. 'And the prop?' she said, 'Will it be good enough?'

Wade shrugged. 'Unless someone physically inspects it. But as I gather, that's the whole purpose of this.' He paused, looking nervous. 'You know it could backfire, right? Dibble and the MIDX crew might not take to this once they learn the truth, and who knows how the museum goers will react...'

Kim sighed. 'I know Wade.' she said. 'I don't like it much either, but as long as the ending headline reads "Adrena Lynn captured", it'll be worth it.' She looked up at the dais where the plinth shone dimly under a soft spotlight. The MIDX news crew was signing a 3-2-1 countdown while their lights bathed Dibble with a diffused glow.

'This is A. U. Dibble reporting at the Middleton Museum,' The smiling, energetic face of Dibble was close to the camera, which was mounted near a set of raised stairs near the display podium. 'Where Mr. Russ Cueler is making a personal donation to this fine establishment.'

Kim stood off to the side from where the camera was pointing at Dibble, with Russ Cueler and Ron standing behind him. The idea had come to her to use Dibble and his crew as a follow-up story to cover her ruse, and the fact that Russ owed Ron a favor made the setup that much easier. Plus, after being dissed by the MIDX news crew, she didn't mind using them as a tool to bait the trap. Dibble was still speaking.

'Cueler, who was recently attacked in his home by criminal daredevil Adrena Lynn, was rescued by local hero Ron Stoppable, who thwarted the robbery along with Kim Possible. Most of the items which Lynn had been attempting to steal were recovered during the struggle. Mr. Cueler has decided to show his gratitude by arranging with Ron Stoppable to set up a new exhibit for charity.'

'Least I could do after being saved by my man Stoppable the other day.' said Cueler, putting his hand on the dais. 'And besides - this thing was just gathering dust in my locker.' he said with a grin. 'Might as well put it on display so the whole world can enjoy it.'

'Generous words and generous deeds.' said Dibble, turning to the camera. 'An impressive act of charity and a national curiosity, sure to appeal to sports fans and museum-goers alike - the world's only diamond-encrusted...'

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Adrena Lynn sat in her exercise chair, surrounded by treadmills, bikes, weights and other equipment. She paused in her dumbbell curls, staring at her TV screen. 'Oh man!' she said, 'I am _so_ on that!' She let the dumbbells fall to the foam-padded floor with a thud, and reached for her phone...

Rhonda Fatigable stood in a wide expanse of grass in the middle of a wooded field. The green trees a distance away were slightly obscured by a high fence. A network of other fences and walls turned the enclosure into a maze, and there were sections with swaying ropes, sections with practice dummies, sections with other equipment that she knew and loathed, having long associated them with hard work and pain. She was sweating and gasping in her _gi_, the eagle feathers hanging from her left ear waved in the breeze.

Across from her, Grimm was smiling and going into a ready stance. 'All right Rhonda,' he said, twitching his fingers towards her, 'One more time!'

Rhonda moaned. 'Aw c'mon!' she said. 'Do I _have_ to? I'm really done up for today...'

Grimm smirked. 'We either put in the time now and get it over with, or take it up again later.' he said. 'Better a sharp stab than a lingering pain...'

'But this _is_ lingering...' Rhonda whined, rubbing her aching shoulders. Rueful was imitating her posture of exhaustion as he leaned against her leg.

Before Grimm could answer, there was a familiar beeping noise from his gym bag, which was laid off to the side of the training yard. He dashed over to pick it up, with Rhonda following and sitting next to the fence with a tired sigh.

'What's the sitch, Jade?' Grimm said as Jade's face glowed on the tiny screen.

Jade looked slightly confused. 'It's Adrena Lynn.' she said. 'She wants to talk to you.'

Grimm paused. 'All right - blank out video and distort our outgoing audio as usual.' he said. A moment later, Lynn's voice came through the speaker.

'Yo, is this my mystery man?'

'Lynn.' Grimm replied, and Rhonda heard Lynn's voice sounding a bit more put out as she responded.

'Still don't trust me enough to let me see you?'

'Don't take it personal.' said Grimm. 'I don't trust anybody.'

There was a pause. 'Fair enough.' came her answer. 'I just called to say it's not necessary for you to suggest another job for me to do.'

Grimm raised an eyebrow, looking towards Rhonda. Rhonda shrugged and mouthed silently to him. '_She on to us?'_ Grimm shrugged as well, then turned back to his communicator. 'Are you dissatisfied with the jobs I've referred?'

'No, they've been great.' she answered, sounding chirpy again. 'You said they'd restore my reputation and you were right. But I've spotted a job on my own now that I'll be working. Just wanted to let you know.'

'Another job?' Grimm answered. 'Do tell.'

'I just saw a news story on the world's only diamond encrusted bungee cord.' she answered. 'Like I'm gonna pass _that_ up! Don't get me wrong Mr. Unknown electronic voice guy, I'm still up for anything interesting you can think of. But this one's _mine_.'

The speaker hissed with static for one brief instant and faded to silence. Grimm looked like he was about to try calling her back, but he stopped. 'Jade, is this for_ real?'_ he said.

Jade reappeared, and her face looked totally deadpan. 'Doubtful.' she said. 'I just checked this 'news' report, and guess who the museum set up the exhibit in behalf of? Russ Cueler and Ron Stoppable.'

Grimm sighed and shook his head. 'A _diamond encrusted_ bungee cord?' he said, his voice thick with disbelief. 'Jeez Kim... could you _be_ any more obvious?'

Rhonda shrugged. 'Hey, nothing says 'I love you' like a diamond-studded bungee cord.' she said, personally glad that Grimm seemed momentarily distracted from their exercises.

Jade's voice piped in from Grimm's communicator. 'I can make sure she gets a warning before she gets there...' she said, but Grimm held up his hand.

'Forget it.' he said. 'If she's dumb enough to fall for this, she _deserves_ to get caught. Besides, we've gotten about all the mileage from her we could expect. This accelerates things a little, but that doesn't worry me so much anymore.' He shut off his communicator and got to his feet. He held out his hand to Rhonda and grinned. 'One more time...' he said, and Rhonda groaned, reluctantly letting him pull her up...

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

The Middleton Museum was dark in the shadow of the night. The moon and stars were hidden behind veils of cloud. The walls and pillars were as dull and black now as they had been gleaming and bright during the day. All was quiet and even the air was still.

Above the rotunda of the main exhibition area there was a set of frosted glass skylights. There was a squeaking, scraping noise far up near the ceiling, and a circular section of glass fell away before being neatly caught by a gloved hand and pulled back through the hole that had been left. The arm snaked through the hole and found a latch, which clicked softly. Then there was a creaking noise as a panel in the skylight opened and a slender figure descended on a zip line.

Adrena Lynn stopped a few feet above the floor, hanging nearly at eye level to the plinth, the sparkling coils of the bungee cord were barely a few inches in front of her. She licked her lips, her eyes gleaming almost as brightly as the cord. But she put down a pair of goggles and checked out the plinth first. She could see no infra-red or ultra-violet beams, no tripwires. She reached out to the cord. 'Girl, you have got it goin' _on_...' she said softly.

She took the cord in her hand and began lifting it off the plinth. As soon as she had a good grip on it though, she started wildly, bobbing around on her zip line. She heard a _hiss_ and a sharp metallic _clang_. She instinctively tapped her belt to activate the winch of her zip line and pull her up. But she felt herself slam against something and felt pressure on her back.

Lights flooded the room. She looked around wildly and saw Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable, flanked by at least four police officers, stepping out from the hallways and surrounding her. She also saw that she was inside a cylindrical cage which had snapped up from the floor. It was closed off at the top with heavy bars, holding her down while the motor of her zip line winch whined and began grinding it's bearings at the pressure.

Ron blew on a party noisemaker. _ 'Happy Birthday!' _he shouted, and the stony expressions on two of the police officers flickered momentarily.

Adrena Lynn looked furious. She seemed to be trying to force her winch to pull harder, maybe hoping she could squeeze through the bars that held her in, or perhaps even tear the cage loose from it's housing on the floor. Instead it merely kept her pinned against the bars at the top of the cage, her face looking more and more purple.

Kim smiled. 'I guess we should do something before she hurts herself.' she said to Ron. Ron nodded and held Rufus gently in his hands, placing him on top of the cage. Rufus grinned and skittered across the bars, climbing up the zip line. There was a white flash of teeth, and a snapping noise. The zip line was reeled quickly up and out through the skylight while Adrena Lynn tumbled to the floor with a loud grunt.

'Good one, Rufus!' Ron said, giving him the thumbs-up. Rufus grinned and waved, but flailed to keep his balance as Adrena Lynn threw herself against the bars.

'Really _cute_.' she growled. 'How did you pull this off? There weren't any laser grids around that thing.'

'Pressure sensitive.' said Kim, looking at her with smug satisfaction. The instant you tried to lift it, _booyah._'

'Should have brought a bag of sand to swap it out with!' Ron laughed. 'That's what Indy would have done...'

'Who?' said Kim.

But Lynn held out the bungee cord. 'Then let's talk trade.' she said. 'You let me out of this thing, and _maybe_ I won't tear this cord to ribbons!'

Kim laughed. 'Go ahead, I don't care.'

Lynn looked momentarily baffled. 'You think I'm _bluffing_?' she said, twisting the cord in her hands. 'What's Cueler gonna think of you using his diamond rope like a poker chip?'

'I think he'll be fine with it,' said Kim. 'Considering he never had one.'

Lynn's face went totally blank. Ron's face broke into a wide grin and he laughed. 'Don't you get it?' he said. 'There's no such _thing_ as a diamond-studded bungee cord! A real diamond studded bungee would weigh a lot more and work really lousy.'

Lynn looked at the glittering rope in her hand. 'Then... what _is_ this...?'

Kim put her hands on her hips, smiling broadly. 'You're the proud owner of nearly forty dollars worth of cubic zirconium and rhinestones.' she said.

Adrena Lynn looked angry, but there was a curious expression mingled with it. 'You set this up with the press and everyone?' she said, letting the cord fall to the floor at her feet. 'You _lied_ to the whole city just to get to me? Maybe I'm not the real crook here...' Kim frowned, but gestured to the waiting police officers.

It was only a few minutes later when they had retracted the cage. The police had surrounded her on every side and Kim had kept a wary eye on her as they handcuffed her and took her burglary tools.

Ron held a small remote in his hands and was tapping a large red button. The cage sprang up and down several times, the bars at the top extending out from housings at the tip of each bar that lined the roof of the cylinder. 'Pretty cool.' he said. 'Wade outdid himself this time.'

But Kim's attention was still on Adrena Lynn. 'Before we send you off to Cell Block D,' she said, 'I feel reluctantly obligated to tell you that you could get a reduced sentence if you turn in your _boss_.'

Lynn frowned. 'I don't_ have_ a boss.' she said. 'I only take orders from the best daredevil stuntwoman in the world. That's _me_.'

Kim frowned as well. 'Get real Lynn.' she said. 'You weren't even smart to keep your show from getting cancelled. Do you expect us to believe you did all these robberies on your own?'

'Of _course_ I did!' Lynn answered, looking angry. 'You think after all those losers in the media bailed on me two years ago that I was gonna give them any more fodder? All the heists were 100 grade-A _me_, Kim. The only thing I didn't do was pick out targets...' But she caught herself, stopping abruptly.

Kim zeroed in on her at once. 'Really? Who _did_?'

Adrena Lynn glared at the two cops who had her by either shoulder. 'I don't know who he was.' she said. 'And he never actually _told_ me to steal anything - he just suggested jobs he thought I'd like.'

'Come on, Lynn.' said Kim, putting a sly edge to her voice. 'Whoever it was obviously isn't coming to help you. You don't owe him anything - are you telling me you never _saw_ him?'

'Oh I _saw_ him.' said Lynn sarcastically. In a darkened doorway at night, in a dark alley at night, in a dark area of the city park at night, are you deducing the pattern here? I'd finger him if I could - except I can't tell you what he looks like. But when he first contacted me, he gave me something he said I should pass on to you.'

Kim stared. 'What?' she said.

Adrena Lynn stared at one of the burly policemen who braced her. 'If one of these guys will reach into my left jacket pocket, he had a note delivered to me some time ago, with instructions to give it to you if we ever met.'

Kim gave her the most suspicious stare she could muster. 'So why did you wait until _now?_'

Adrena Lynn cocked her head to the side. 'Must've slipped my mind.' she said defiantly.

One of the policemen quickly produced a yellow sticky note. And scribbled on it in rough letters was '_011100100110010101100001011100000110010101110010_'. Kim looked back at Adrena Lynn. 'That's _it_?' she said.

'That's it.' she answered. 'He said seeing it would cheese you off, if you were smart enough to figure it out. Looks like you weren't - and you _aren't_.'

Kim glared at her. 'Take her away, boys.' she said. And with a final venomous look, Adrena Lynn was hauled off towards the waiting police wagon.

Later, she and Ron made their way back to the Sloth. Wade had joined them, after inspecting his cage to see how well it had held up under Lynn's struggles. 'Am I right?' she asked.

'Yep.' Wade answered. 'It's binary code, just like the other one. Most computer information can be digitally encoded as a series of ones and zeroes - it's how the whole jargon of bits and bytes got started.'

'So what does _this_ string say?'

Wade looked at the screen on his scanner and shrugged. 'It says, _reaper_.'

Ron took the note and stared at it, squinching his eyes and rotating it in his hands. 'Reaper.' he said. 'Well, that sounds cool, but usually our villains have a name that's some kind of _pun_...'

They stopped, standing next to the Sloth in a mini-huddle. 'It's not a name.' said Kim, shaking her head. 'If it was really done by the same guy who wrote the other note, then he may be giving us a message.'

Wade brought up both notes on the screen of his communicator, displaying them side by side. 'It's the same kind of post-it note.' he said. 'And the same style of writing - but it's deliberately crude and most likely won't match the natural handwriting of whoever wrote it.'

'The other note said 'first half.' said Kim. 'And this one, 'reaper'.'

'First half and reaper?' said Ron. 'So the guy behind this is named "Rea"?'

'No.' said Kim. 'They were sent in binary - which is another word for _two_. It's a two-part clue. Two separate notes - two separate clues.' She thought, her brow knitted in concentration. 'First half... reaper...' Then her eyes went very sharp and her face went into an almost vicious frown. 'Two separate _words._ The first half of _reaper_. The _Grim_ Reaper.'

Wade's face broke into sudden understanding. 'Grim.' he said. 'Grimm _Probable_.'

Ron's face pulled into a worried grimace. 'Oh... _them_.' he said.

Kim nodded. 'The sitch just got a whole lot grimmer.'

Kim was hunched over the wheel of the Sloth as she drove back towards her house. Her eyes were narrowed and she was scowling as if the road itself had done something to anger her. Ron looked at her, and his own face was full of concern, though he was too afraid to break the silence which was filled with so much tension it felt like a time bomb was ticking next to him. He looked over at Wade, who was in the back seat, looking at him with equal trepidation.

Kim had almost forgotten there were other people in the car as she brooded. It all made sense to her now. Grimm had used Adrena Lynn as a red herring, and had kept her running around after the stuntwoman while his own missions went on without interference. He was active again, had probably been active for some time, doing his usual thing, laying false trails, pulling strings and making sure that he himself was untouchable. Kim gripped the steering wheel with her fingers clenched. And flashes of memory darted through her mind.

_She was being pulled up towards the large opening of a drain pipe, her ankle twined in the grappling line from Grimm's battle suit. Grimm had thrown a glass capsule out of the pipe over a fifty-foot drop. A capsule which Kim had thought contained Ron's good side. She heard a distant sound like glass shattering and saw a flash of blue light which flared briefly for a moment and then disappeared. 'No!' she whispered, then turned in rage on Grimm, who was pulling her back safely to the rim of the ledge._

_'Too late Kim.' he said, backing off until he was just out of striking distance. 'If you want to restore Ron to his old self, you've got a hard choice in front of you. You can still get him back to normal. But to do it - you'll have to use the Attitudinator to steal good from someone else and give it to Ron.' Kim was stricken. It was the one thing she could never do - destroy one life to save another - but this was Ron, the person she loved..._

_'I'll be interested to see who you target for the process.' Grimm went on. 'What innocent victim will you condemn to a lifetime of evil in order to save your precious Ron?'_

_'You...' Kim hissed, trembling in fury. 'How could you...?'_

_Grimm ignored her. 'Will you go after someone you know? A friend? A family member? Or will you hunt down some anonymous loser in the dead of night and rob them of their good?' he paused, a light of cunning shining behind his eyes. 'But maybe I'm giving you too much credit.' he continued. 'Maybe you don't even want to save Ron - maybe you never really cared about him!'_

_With a scream, Kim charged at him..._

Ron bit his lip. Kim had already passed her house and was driving around the block again. Rather than looking absent-minded or vacant, she looked totally focused and sharp. 'Uh... Kim?' he said and he glanced at Rufus, who shrugged his naked pink shoulders, looking back and forth between his master and the girl driving the car...

_Kim stood in a warehouse amid the wreckage of the Mega Synaptic Transducer. Grimm was standing in front of her, holding out a glowing blue capsule. The one he had destroyed had been a fake - used for no other reason but to play her. 'Do you want it or not?' he said._

_Kim held out her hand._

_'Say please.' he said with an evil smile._

_Kim felt anger boiling inside her. But she fought it back and kept her hand held out. 'Please...' she said. 'I want Ron back.' Grimm stepped forward slowly, and placed the capsule in her hand._

_'Why?' she said, gritting her teeth, and Grimm's answer, instead of satisfying her curiosity, caused her blood to boil._

_'To restore... balance.' he said. 'Plus I couldn't wait to see the look on your face.'_

_And she was closing in on Grimm and Rhonda after restoring Ron's good, but he was still taunting her. 'How do you feel, Kim?' he said. 'Are you so full of rage that you want to hurt me?'_

_Kim stared at him, panting, her fists clenched. 'Take your shot, Kim.' he said, spreading out his arms. 'I'll give you one for free. You know you want to, I can see it in your eyes!'_

_And Kim could not resist the invitation. She punched him hard, and Grimm's head snapped to the side, a grunt of pain escaped from his throat. He turned back to stare at her, rubbing his chin, a slow smile creeping across his lips. 'Welcome to the dark side, Kim Possible.' He turned to Rhonda. 'What did I tell you?' he said to her. 'We didn't even need the Attitudinator for her...'_

'Kim!' Ron's voice broke into her reverie and she started, restored to awareness of where she was. 'Kim, the tour's been fun, but our houses are _right there_.' he said, pointing to her driveway, which she was already moving past again. She quickly hit the brakes and the Sloth lurched to a stop.

When she backed up and parked in the driveway, she turned off the engine and dead silence fell. Ron wasn't sure what to do. It seemed somehow wrong to do the normal routine of saying 'see you tomorrow', and then kissing her good night. Kim hadn't let go of the steering wheel. She was still gripping it as if she were trying to squeeze through it with her fingers. But finally he couldn't stand the silence any longer. 'Are... you OK?' he said timidly. 'You seem kinda... _serious_.'

'Of _course_ I'm serious.' said Kim, the words hissing through clenched teeth. 'It's Team Probable! The last time we met them they'd taken...' She faltered, unable to finish.

But Ron knew. 'They took_ me_.' he said. 'Kim, I know want to get them in the worst way - but that's the thing. You want it in the _worst_ way.'

'Ron's right.' said Wade quietly. 'Grimm's not like Shego or the others. He tries to win by winding people up and getting them to defeat themselves.'

'So _not_ gonna happen this time!' Kim said forcefully.

'Uh, it's kinda happening_ already_...' said Ron, looking nervously at his feet. 'You're _winding_ Kim...'

'I am NOT winding.' she said.

Wade looked somehow smaller as he spoke again. 'But the evidence clearly indicates...'

'_I am not winding!'_ Kim snarled.

Ron cowered. 'OK...' he said softly, opening the car door and sidling out. 'I'm... glad we cleared that up.'

'Yeah.' said Wade, and despite his bulk, he slithered quickly and easily out of the back seat as Ron opened the door. 'Anyway, Ron wanted to... uh, show me the new upgrades on his scooter. I think I'll hitch a ride home with him after I check it out...' Then they turned and sped down the sidewalk towards Ron's house.

Kim stayed in the car long after Ron and Wade had left. And eventually, she started feeling badly about scaring them off. In all her previous encounters with Grimm, one of his key strategies had been to cut her off from her support network. If she was going to take him down, she was going to _need_ her friends by her side and firing on all cylinders.

The night stayed peaceful and quiet around her despite the turmoil of her thoughts. So much had been left unresolved after her last encounter with Team Probable. The kidnapping of Ron, turning him against her with the Attitudinator. Using the Mega Synaptic Transducer to turn _everyone_ against her, including her own family. And Grimm's parting shot, in which he had revealed to Ron that she and Wade had bugged him with a tracking chip, had nearly destroyed their relationship.

Grimm had used her as a psychological punching bag from the moment they'd first encountered each other. And she fought to keep herself calm as she recalled all of his cutting remarks, his head games, his tactical maneuvers, all calculated to get her to lose her cool and play right into his hands.

'So... _not_ gonna happen this time.' she said to herself.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Far away in Japan, night had fallen over the lonely mountainous region that housed the Yamanouchi School. And while it may have appeared that the school slept, anyone who made such an assumption would have been mistaken. The ninja academy was ever watchful, with organized patrols of skilled fighters on the walls at any given moment.

Since the destruction of Yamanouchi by the Yono, reconstruction had gone apace. The main buildings were back in order, and teaching had resumed soon thereafter, though many students were obliged to divide their time between training and construction on the other buildings which needed repair.

One such patrol was stationed near a patch of ground within the main courtyard. Though in actuality, the patrol consisted of one lone guard. Hirotaka stood in the night air, silent and tireless. As one of the top students at Yamanouchi, he had been trusted with the special task of making sure no one drew near the site of the buried Yono shrine.

Since the defeat of Monkey Fist, things had been quiet for many weeks. Fewer guards had been required after the general shock and fear of the first few days had passed. They kept the extraordinary events secret, and it seemed unlikely that anyone outside the school would know where the Yono shrine was.

But it was still a task that Hirotaka took very seriously, and to be trusted with it was an honor. And so he stood guard, though it seemed unnecessary. The middle night had passed and all was quiet. He had seen nothing during his entire shift at watch, except for one crow which was perched in the high branches of a tree in the courtyard. He thought nothing of it, though he did think it unusual as the bird simply stood there, motionless until it was joined by several other crows. They were silent, and remained in the tree where they had perched, simply watching out over the courtyard. The moon shone pale through the clouds high above and only a slight breeze from the surrounding mountains gave any indication that anything at all was moving.

Then from the black shadows that engulfed the courtyard wall, a man appeared as if he had stepped forth out of the darkness itself. He stood staring at Hirotaka, who had not noticed him. Then he sat down on the earth and took a small drum from a pouch at his side, tapping it lightly and breathing out a rhythmic chant.

_Sipimottakiksi, Sipimottakiksi,  
Nikaahtomaana nitaanistsi'toyiiwa..._

Hirotaka was aware of him at once. To his eyes, he saw only a cloaked and robed man sitting down and chanting. He seemed thin to the point of emaciated, and Hirotaka didn't feel endangered. He strode almost to where the man sat, half wreathed in shadow.

'This place is forbidden!' he said, calling out to the man. But the man ignored him, continuing to tap his drum and chanting as if he hadn't heard him. 'It is not my wish to harm you, but if you do not leave I will have no choice but to force you!' But the man kept chanting, slightly faster and with more intensity.

_Sipimottakiksi, Sipimottakiksi,  
Nikaahtomaana nitaanistsi'toyiiwa!_

And Hirotaka stared in confusion as the shadows of the surrounding walls suddenly seemed to lance out towards him like an army of tentacled hands...

The man stopped chanting and fell to the ground as if asleep. Hirotaka stared at him in silence for a moment, and then flexed his fingers as if he had awakened from a trance. He lifted the man and placed him near the bare patch of earth where the Yono shrine was buried. Then he took the drum from the man's hand and began tapping it himself, his voice whispering softly in the night air.

_Sipimottakiksi, Sipimottakiksi,  
Nikaahtomaana nimaataakaniiwa..._

The darkness swirled around Hirotaka, surrounding him in misty veils as he chanted, until a bubble of shadow covered him and the Yono shrine. Only then did he turn and walk forward, staring down at the ground. He plunged his hand beneath the soil, and heaving with all his strength, he pulled up what looked like a ring of ancient metal.

There was a loud rumbling, and from the earth, a wide stone platform rose up. It continued to rise, revealing a structure that was shaped like a gigantic monkey head with grotesque fangs.

Hirotaka smiled a wicked smile as the Yono shrine rose from the earth, seeing the still and silent figure of a man standing at the top...

The guards heard the loud rumble and quaking as the shrine rose, and they raced to the scene while one ran to awaken Master Sensei. Soon the entire school was awake, pouring out from their rooms with weapons in hand.

Sensei was there within moments, and saw the ninja guards pushing with all their might against a barrier of solid darkness that kept them at bay. Some were striking with their katana and attempting to cast throwing stars through the shadow barrier, but none seemed able to get through the wall of shadows which now surrounded the shrine.

Maze looked out through Hirotaka's eyes. All was as he had studied. In his hand he held the first half of the Yono scroll which he had taken from Monkey Fist's manor. He looked at the words on the scroll.

_Simian, Monkey, A la Oh no,  
Awaken, Savant Yono_

_'These fools.'_ thought Maze, glancing back at the shadow barrier where he knew the Yamanouchi students were swarming and trying to break through. _'Believing that a force of nature such as this could be imprisoned? Yes - this being is precisely what I need...'_ Then he threw aside the Yono scroll and reached down into the pack which was still on the back of his sleeping body. He took out a book with strange characters written on it and also took a metallic brand and tied it to his palm with two leather straps. He breathed heavily, as if steeling himself to perform a difficult task, and chanted loudly.

_Emet - Sipimottakiksi, Sipimottakiksi,  
Emet - Nikaahtomaana nitaanistsi'toyiiwa!_

Then he clasped his palm over the hand of the figure standing atop the Yono shrine, and there was a hissing sound. When he drew back, there were three characters that glowed red before fading.

And the figure moved. It had seemed to be the statue of a man with grossly elongated hands and feet. Monkey Fist stumbled and then righted himself, his body feeling strangely heavy and stiff. He looked around, confused. The last thing he had remembered was Stoppable's infant sister, and his attempts to capture her.

He looked down at his hands, which were gray and rough, like heavy stone, but he was able to flex and move them as if they were flesh. He spoke, and his voice also was rough and coarse, like stone. 'What sorcery is this?' he said, examining his body. The mark of the Yono was still on his left hand, but there were now other characters that glowed red above it.

_'Maokiiwa_.' said Maze. 'I am _Sskipoyiwa_ - the Shaman of Shadows. I have freed you from your prison.'

Monkey Fist stared at Hirotaka, frowning. 'You are no shaman.' he said. 'I know you - you're one of Sensei's flunkies!'

Maze laughed softly. 'Of course - pardon me while I reclaim my true body.' And with that, Hirotaka staggered, holding his head. And Maze rose up from his place on the ground, speaking in his deep voice. 'I have freed you because there is a goal that we both strive for - _power_. And I believe that our separate goals may be achieved by mutual cooperation.'

Monkey Fist looked at him curiously, and then looked at the marks on his hand. 'I'm listening...' he said quietly.

Hirotaka looked at the two figures before him, and recognized the Yono shrine at once. He leaped forward, his hands raised to strike. Monkey Fist went into a defensive stance, but too late. Hirotaka's fist struck soundly against his chest. But there was a loud _thunk_ and Hirotaka drew back in pain, clutching at his hand.

Maze looked on the scene with amusement. 'As you can see, I have not invoked the curse of the Yono,' he said, 'I have circumvented it with a new enchantment that mingles light and shadow. While it has not restored you to flesh, it_has_ restored your mobility and awareness. And I think you will find there are... _other_ benefits. Now - test your new form!'

Monkey Fist needed no further encouragement. He leaped down, striking at Hirotaka, who barely dodged in time. Monkey Fist's hand smashed into one of the outcroppings of the Yono shrine, and he shattered it easily.

Hirotaka's strikes and blocks should have been enough to stop him. But Monkey Fist seemed impervious to pain, and he was much stronger than before. Hirotaka fought skillfully, but eventually he was maneuvered into a position he could not escape from, and Monkey Fist landed a solid blow. Hirotaka collapsed with a moan. 'Such strength!' said Monkey Fist quietly. 'And his attacks did not harm me in the slightest...'

Maze nodded, bending down and removing the brand from Hirotaka's palm, and retrieving the book as well. 'This is only a taste of the power that awaits us both.' he said. 'Come with me, and you will see.'

Monkey Fist looked at his hands again, then looked at Maze. 'You pique my curiosity.' he said. 'Very well - I will hear what you have to say.'

Maze nodded, and held up his staff. There was a noise like a passing wind. Then suddenly the shadow barrier was gone. Sensei and the Yamanouchi students rushed forward, but they found nothing but an unconscious Hirotaka...

_Coming Soon: Chapter 4  
A battle where old enemies fight,  
Or a match that comes back to be struck again.  
What is it?_


	5. Ch 4: Rematch

A Friend In Darkness  
All Things Probable 3

A Kim Possible Fanfiction  
by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and its affiliates, etc. etc.

Chapter 4  
Rematch  
_Or: Moral Kombat_

Kim sat in the couch in her house, looking at the evening news report. Ron was sitting nervously at her side. He'd been walking on eggshells since the previous day, and hadn't broached the subject of Grimm Probable again for fear of setting her off.

'And this was the scene at the Middleton Museum last night,' the voice of Dibble spoke, while the screen showed footage of Adrena Lynn being escorted to a waiting police wagon. Lynn's face was scowling, but there was a flash in her eyes as she looked at the camera, and the ghost of her old showboating ways surfaced for an instant as she waved. 'Criminal daredevil Adrena Lynn was caught trying to steal an exhibit from the museum, but fell into a trap prepared by Kim Possible. The famous teen heroine was on the scene as well, and she had this to say.'

Kim saw herself on the screen, addressing the camera and Dibble, who as usual, was pushing a microphone under her nose as if her words were a liquid that he was trying to soak up with a sponge. 'In the interest of honesty and full disclosure, I should say that the exhibit she was trying to steal was a fake that we set up to lure her in. The diamond bungee cord was only a prop, so the actual items of value wouldn't be at risk. We apologize to the city for the ruse, but we plan to sell the bungee prop on Ebay if someone would like to own the bait that caught Adrena Lynn, and we'll be donating the money directly to the museum.'

Dibble showed on the TV screen, sitting behind his desk with the news ticker bar scrolling beneath him. 'There's an old saying that you can't argue with success.' said Dibble, holding his papers in front of him. 'And certainly we can't argue that having Adrena Lynn off the streets and behind bars is good news for everyone. Will Kim Possible's auction to raise funds for the museum be penance enough for the public to forgive her for the deception? We spoke with several viewers, who had varying thoughts on the subject.'

The camera cut to a man being interviewed on the street, Dibble's microphone being held under his chin. The screen showed text reading "Joe Johnson, Local Merchant". 'I think she did the right thing. I mean you've got to take the fight straight to the bad guys, you know? And sometimes that means making them come to _you_ instead of sitting around waiting to be a victim.'

'And you don't mind that Possible used the media to perpetrate a hoax?' Dibble said, his voice off camera.

'Hoax, schmoax.' said Johnson, smiling. 'I mean, it's not like I was planning to make a bee-line for the museum to see a diamond bungee cord.'

An elderly woman showed next on the screen, and the text read "Dora Mestek, Museum goer" 'Well, I had been looking forward to seeing the exhibit, and I was disappointed to learn it was a fake. But I'm sure Ms. Possible did what she thought was needed to catch a dangerous criminal.'

'So you don't mind her using the media in this way?' Dibble's voice said.

'Oh come on Dibble.' said Mestek, as if she were speaking to a grandchild. 'You expect us to believe the media doesn't do the same thing when it suits them?'

'Will this affect your opinion on any future statements that Kim Possible makes through the media?' Dibble asked, not responding to Mestek's question.

Mestek hesitated a moment. 'Well, I'll think twice probably, but she's always been such an honest girl. I'm sure she doesn't make a habit out of fibbing...'

The camera cut to another scene, and both Kim and Ron flinched instinctively as a tan-complexioned girl showed up, with immaculate hair and an insolent smile. The text on the screen read "Bonnie Rockwaller, Middleton High student". 'How do _you_ feel about Kim Possible's ruse?' Dibble's voice spoke.

'Well Possible gets away with a lot at school.' Bonnie said. 'I mean, all that 'teen hero crimefighter' stuff - it's obviously gone to her head.'

'Was it worth it to catch the criminal?' Dibble asked.

'Worth yanking the chain of everyone in the city?' said Bonnie. 'Well, they say anything's possible for a Possible. I guess now we know that includes _lying_.'

Ron took in a breath. 'Oh yeah, and _she_ never does anything like that.' he said.

Kim sighed. 'So _don't_ like being compared to Bonnie...' she said quietly, and Ron quickly fell silent.

Dibble was shown back behind his studio desk, speaking to the camera. 'It should be noted that the fake diamond bungee auction is already at several thousand dollars, partly because of a generous bid by Russ Cueler. All of the items which Adrena Lynn had stolen were recovered, including the few items she had taken from Cueler in her previous heists. So while some may not agree with the method, they seem to agree on the end result. All of this has led us to do more investigations of Kim Possible, in which we'll discuss other questionable outcomes of her previous cases. Tune in tomorrow night for our next report, "Kim Possible - is she really all that?"

'Boooooo!' Ron said, shaking his fist at the screen. Rufus was imitating Ron and blowing a raspberry at Dibble's face, but the image disappeared as Kim held up the remote and turned off the TV. Kim slumped back into the couch, her arms tucked at her sides. Ron looked nervously at her and glanced at Rufus, as if pleading mentally to the mole rat for some advice about what to say. Rufus spread out his hands with a bewildered expression.

'Kim, I know you're upset...' he said at last.

'I'm _not_ upset.' she said, breaking in. She sighed and was idly fiddling with the remote. 'The truth is, part of me thinks I deserved it.'

Being simple at heart, Ron responded the simplest way he could. 'Come _on_!' he said. 'That was all like totally bogus! And interviewing _Bonnie_? What, does she have the city wired so she knows exactly where to go to diss you at any given moment...?'

'All that weirdness with the Centurion project and you'd think I would have learned my lesson.' Kim said, as if she hadn't heard him.

Ron tried changing gears from dismissal to sympathy. 'Kim you can't beat yourself up over this. Taking down Adrena Lynn was a _good_ thing, right?'

Kim wrapped her arms around her knees, still staring at the blank TV screen. 'But if you get to the right place by doing the _wrong_ thing, is it worth it?' she said. 'We haven't even _found_ Grimm yet, and he's already got me crossing lines.'

Ron hesitated for a moment, but Kim didn't seem as upset as she had the other day, and she herself brought up Grimm's name. 'If you don't want to be compared to Bonnie, then don't compare yourself to Grimm.' Ron said. 'What we did isn't any worse than what they've done.' said Ron.

'But is it any _better_?' Kim said, her voice sounding hollow and depressed. Ron didn't answer. After several quiet minutes, Kim's wrist Kimmunicator beeped. 'What's the sitch, Wade?' she said after turning on the screen.

Wade shook his head. 'Nothing.' he said. 'No thefts took place while Adrena Lynn was at the museum and there hasn't been anything suspicious today either. If Team Probable _was_ using Lynn to cover any recent activity, then maybe her getting caught scared them into lying low.'

'And I thought they couldn't _get_ any lower!' said Ron. Wade looked like he was about to chuckle, but a glance at Kim's stoic face was enough to stifle it.

'It was Grimm, I'm _sure_ about it.' Kim growled. 'And they won't give up on any jobs they have lined up just because their stooge is in jail. They'll be back. We just need to find out from _where_. The news report got that much right - we have to find a way to take the fight to _him_.'

Wade was glancing from side to side on the Kimmunicator screen, checking the monitors set up in his house. 'Jade's no slouch.' he said, sounding almost grudging. 'When it comes to electronic data, she knows how to cover their tracks. I've tried all my normal stuff and it's not getting anywhere.'

Kim looked steadily at him. 'Try some _abnormal_ stuff.' she said. 'Or invent something new. Anything you can do to flush them out. I need this, Wade. If anyone can do it, it's you.'

Wade smiled, looking embarrassed but not displeased. 'I'm all over it.' he said, and the screen blipped off.

Ron hesitated, knowing the answer before he even asked the question, but still unable to stop himself. 'Is there... anything _I _can do?' he said.

Kim gave him a faint smile. 'I don't think so.' she said. 'Right now it's a question of whether or not we can deduce where they hit next.'

'And when we find them?' Ron said. 'You know, our last dust-up with them didn't go all that smooth...'

'I've been thinking about that too.' said Kim. 'And we should try something different...'

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Several days later, the Mathter stood pacing in his hideout. He adjusted the "M" shaped crown on his head and tugged at his belt. He looked at his watch, then tapped his foot, looked to either side, and checked his watch again. Suddenly the door to his inner chamber hissed open, and two figures walked in. Grimm and Rhonda entered the lair and Grimm's eyes fixed on the Mathter, giving him a nod.

'You're ten minutes and 9.73 seconds late!' said the Mathter, pointing at his watch. 'The delay is causing indefinite integrals and unpredictable parabolas!'

Grimm cocked an eyebrow. 'I have no idea what you just said, but I apologize for the delay. If it's any consolation, it was necessary to make sure no one could trace the theft back to you.' He took off his backpack and opened the flap on top, taking out a glass sphere that contained an intricate spider web of circuitry and several softly blinking lights that ran through fiberoptic threads within the sphere.

The Mathter's face went from annoyed to adoring in a splintered second. He stumbled forward as if hypnotized, his hands closing lovingly around the glass orb. 'Ahhh...' he sighed, his eyes milking over. 'The AI Equational Codex! With this hooked into the systems which run my lair, I'll have the ultimate code-breaking computer! Hacking into Go City's secure financial databases will be as easy as _pi_!'

Grimm cleared his throat, and the Mathter reluctantly tore his gaze from the AI Equational Codex to look at him. 'Ah yes, your payment.' he said, and he set the Codex into a tripod-like stand before fishing a briefcase from behind his control desk. He handed it over to Grimm with some hesitation. 'I still think your fee on this job was a little close to absolute maximum...'

'Run the numbers.' said Grimm smoothly, taking the case and handing it to Rhonda. 'What are your chances of success without the Codex, and what were the odds against you being able to steal it without getting caught? Don't look at what you're spending, look at what you're _saving_.'

The Mathter pursed his lips, but gave a grudging nod. 'You make a critical point.' he said.

Rhonda had finished checking the money and was looking around at the walls of the lair, which were plastered with numbers and various mathematical symbols. She looked at the Mathter, and had to bite her lip to keep from chuckling. His costume really did look as if he'd made it by routing through a drawer of old boxer shorts and T-shirts. _'Easy girl,'_ she thought. _'You can diss him later at home...'_

The Mathter was looking back at the Codex, the expression of adoration returning to his masked eyes. 'The odds of stealing this myself were rather low, but you came through. I must admit, you two are a very competent duo.' he said.

'True.' said Grimm, his smirk becoming more pronounced. 'You might say we're...'

_'Co-efficient_!' said Rhonda, smiling and pointing at Grimm. 'I actually _saw_ that one coming for a change!' Grimm smiled and he and Rhonda tapped fists.

The Mathter harrumphed. 'When you come up with a cool persona, _everyone_ wants to get in on the act...' he muttered.

Later as they made their way to the _Ksikkihkíni,_ Grimm got another beep on his communicator. 'Sitch me, Jade.' he said.

'Mission's over I presume?' Jade asked, and on the screen she was fidgeting with her rainbow-streaked hair.

'We were just getting ready to leave.' said Grimm, nodding while Rhonda took the helmets out from the trunk and Rueful slithered into her backpack. 'What's up?'

'We've got another hit on your site...' Jade started, but Grimm let out a sigh.

'Can it wait for a while, Jade?' he said. 'The work's been great lately, but it's been constant. We've still got school and stuff to deal with and we'll need some time off just to make sure all the irons in the fire are tended...'

'Actually yeah.' said Jade. 'He says he's not in any particular rush, but he needs some components taken.'

Grimm sounded suspicious at once. 'Usually our clients are on a strict self-imposed timetable for world domination.' he said. 'Why's this one so mellow? Who is he?'

Jade shook her head. 'Beats me.' she answered. He's pulling our SOP of distorting the audio and video so he can stay anonymous. But wait'll you see how much he's offering...' Jade paused and some numbers scrolled across the screen. Grimm's eyes brightened.

'That much?' he said. 'It sounds good. _Suspiciously_ good.' He paused, thinking deeply, and glancing over at Rhonda, who was already wearing her helmet and sitting on the bike, waiting for him. 'Let him know we're interested, but screen him and make sure it's not a trick. We'll use the time to rest up and get ready.' Grimm looked keenly at Jade. 'And along those lines,' he said, 'Did_ they_ figure it out?'

Jade nodded. 'Sho' 'nuff.' she said. 'Since the thing at the museum, Wade's been going through every search string on _probable_ and _fatigable_ that he can find.'

'The red herrings holding up?' he said, smiling faintly.

'So far.' Jade answered. 'But now they know it's you, they're gonna go all out. She was pretty mad about that thing with the Attitudinator...'

'I know.' Grimm answered. 'But that could make things even easier when we meet them again.'

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

The bell rang in the halls of Middleton High. Outside, the marquee read in mis-matched letters, _"Assembly Today: The Importance of Honesty: Guest Lecturer Bill Clinton"_. Kim was fishing books out from her locker for her next classes while storing books from the previous ones. She kept an eye on the screen mounted inside the locker, which remained black and inactive.

Ron shifted his weight from foot to foot as he stood beside her, leaning against the other lockers. She had seemed calmer the last few days, but with every news report of any theft, he could feel her level of tension rising. And there had been reports, several of them, about thefts and other incidents in which the police had no suspects and had not found the perpetrators.

Kim straightened up as she heard the familiar sound of her monitor screen beeping, and Wade was staring out at her. He looked tired, and he was not smiling. 'I've been going over police band and other secure channels.' he started.

'Let me guess.' said Kim. 'There's nothing different than what I've been seeing in the news.'

'I'm afraid not.' Wade answered. 'I'd like to say they have more information than they're letting on, but they don't. Of course, they haven't been looking for someone specific like _we_ have.'

Kim nodded. 'Then maybe we can spot something they haven't. What _have_ you collected?'

Wade was looking over lists of scrolling data on his computer screens. 'Right now, Killigan is buying a number of laser-activated cannons, but I don't know what he's planning to use them for. But he's doing it fairly out in the open, so I doubt Team Probable is involved. Camille Leon is in Central Europe, but she's been doing all her own thieving lately. Dementor has been trying to gather information about your battle-suit, but I've got him stonewalled. Every other major bad guy is kind of between plots right now. The only other things I've got to go on are rumors...'

'I'll even listen to those.' said Kim.

Wade sighed, looking embarrassed. 'OK. DNAmy is still plotting to get the Cuddle-buddy line re-established in stores by 'any means necessary'. Motor Ed is supposed to be going to Hollywood to try and force them to make a sequel to "Road Trip". Frugal Lucre is up for parole and buzz is that he wants to try and get a job working for Drakken. There are rumors that someone may try to break into Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems. Senor Senior Junior recently put out a personal...'

'Hold it - back up one!' said Kim. 'What's supposed to be a target of a break in and why?'

Wade paused. 'Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems.' said Wade. 'The tech magazines all say they're currently working on a device called the Oscillation Overthruster.' he said. 'It supposed to be able to systematically re-arrange molecules along a straight line, which could allow for a much more powerful and effective method of transmitting communications. Though there are also rumors it could also be used for interdimensional...'

'That's it.' said Kim. 'That's his target.'

Ron looked uncomfortable. 'How do you _know_?' he said. 'It's not like we've got probe droids to confirm it...'

'Ron's right about the question.' Wade said. 'Team Probable are mercenaries, and they go where the money is. They could have been hired to help for any _one_ of these jobs. And who says I haven't got probe droids?'

'Just call it crimefighter's intuition.' said Kim. 'Keep an eye on this one Wade. I've got a _bad_ feeling about this.'

'So you get those too...' Ron mumbled as Wade's face disappeared with a blip. After a few seconds, Ron ventured to speak again. 'Uh, any thoughts as to _how_ we'll catch them this time?'

Kim was smiling, though it was a much more mischievous smile than her normal one. 'I said we should try something different.' she answered, 'Grimm works in the dark and trades in deception. So to take him down we need two things. Light and truth.'

Ron looked even more confused. 'Yeah, OK.' he said. 'So we, what? Hit him with flashlights and newspapers?'

'Close.' said Kim.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Grimm was seated at the desktop computer in his room at home, putting the finishing touches on a homework assignment for school. Even while he was typing in the closing sentences, his computer beeped and Jade's face popped into a window on the screen. 'What up, Jade?' he said.

'More information on that job offer.' Jade said. 'The client wants a communication module called the Oscillation Overthruster.' said Jade. 'They're offering top dollar as long as we can deliver it undamaged and anonymously.'

'Did you figure out who the client is?' Grimm said off-handedly.

Jade shook her head. 'Whoever they are they've got their lines of communication pretty well guarded.'

Grimm raised an eyebrow. 'Any chance it's bait for a trap?'

Jade shook her head. 'Doubtful. I've been quadruple-checking everything like you asked in case it's one of Wade's dodges. But this one looks legit - well, as legit as _any_ of our jobs get. It's located at Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems, which is a high profile top secret facility. It's been hit before by supervillains looking for bits and bobs to steal for their doomsday machines, and Possible may anticipate it as a target...'

Grimm rubbed his chin thoughtfully. 'Take it.' he said at last. 'But put triple security measures in place for the drop off.' Jade nodded and her face disappeared from the screen. He turned his chair around and looked down at the floor where Rhonda lay on a beanbag chair. She was fast asleep with her limbs splayed, her mouth open and her tongue lolling out. Her upper face was covered with an open school book. Rueful lay curled up in the crook of her arm.

He smiled and stared at her as she slept. She gurgled slightly and a soft snore came from her throat. 'Rest up beautiful.' he said softly. 'Soon it's gonna be your time to shine...'

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Ron's legs were aching. His feet were falling asleep and the small of his back was sending lances of pain up his spine. He sat curled up in a dark corner of a vast laboratory room inside Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems. He had been doing this every night for the last three days, sitting in partial concealment behind one of the many desks which were littered with wires, components, welders, tools and other material. Each station had a device which looked like it was the central focus of that desk in particular. But one desk near the center had a strange device on it which looked ramshackle, but much more complete than anything else in the lab.

He glanced aside to where Kim was seated next to him, looking out over the lab with an almost machine-like intensity. She showed no signs of aches or weariness, and had been totally relentless in their guard duties from the moment they started.

The director of the facility, John Bigboote, had been understanding and compliant when Kim had approached him with warnings of a rumored break-in, and her request to be allowed to guard the main labs. Bigboote seemed skeptical that anything could get past the lab's already heavy security, but agreed to let Kim and Ron stand vigil in the labs while keeping it quiet and not informing the press.

And they had watched, for three long nights. Ron had gone to school each following day with red, puffy eyes and doubts in his head. Nothing had happened during any of their guard shifts and he was already preparing speeches to give to Kim about how they might be wrong about Yoyodyne being a target. Rufus yawned and stretched from his place in Ron's pocket. 'Are you sure Grimm didn't start those rumors to trick us into staying up late so he could laugh about it at home?' Ron said hesitantly.

Kim maintained a steely look in her eyes. 'He'll be here.' she said. 'He won't want the Overthruster himself, but there are plenty of bad guys on our list who would love to get their hands on this technology. That means Probable will be the one hired to get it.'

Ron's stomach rumbled loudly. 'Hundreds of secret labs in the world and _none_ of them have a food court...' he moaned.

'Head in the game, Ron.' Kim said. 'When they get here just remember, don't give them a chance to pull their old tricks...'

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

In the night sky above Yoyodyne, the still silence of the air was broken only by a slight whirring noise as a small vehicle broke through the low clouds and descended. The vehicle landed on the roof of the labs and two figures dismounted. One went to the intake vents on the roof and took a number of small orbs from his backpack, dropping one into each vent. The other figure went around to each corner of the rooftop and threw identical orbs down onto the ground at each side. They both donned a pair of gas masks and waited.

There was a hissing sound, and grayish fumes rose around the building, and streamed from each intake vent. Every guard in or around the building was quickly knocked out by the gas. Soon a loud metallic clang sounded through the main lab room as a hand knocked a ventilation grate loose and the two figures dropped neatly onto the floor.

The desk where the Oscillation Overthruster had been mounted shone pale under a dim light as one of the two figures approached it.

From their hiding place in a far corner of the room, Kim bit her lip in nervous anticipation. She held Ron back, motioning him to remain silent. The cameras Wade had set up were in place and rolling. The instant Grimm took the Overthruster, they'd have the proof they needed to make sure Team Probable would never get a moment's peace ever again...

Rhonda looked around the lab nervously. Everything had gone smoothly so far, and their goal was in sight. Everything was dark except for the light that was shining above the desk which Grimm was approaching.

Just as Grimm's hand was about to touch the Overthruster, there was a soft beeping sound that came from his wristwatch. He suddenly stopped and lowered his arm. 'What?' said Rhonda. 'What are you waiting for? It's right_ there_...'

'You know it's kind of funny in a way.' said Grimm, as if he were continuing a conversation he and Rhonda had been having for some time. 'A few months ago we'd never even heard of Kim Possible. Now we can barely swing a dead cat over our heads without hitting her.' Then he raised his voice, looking back over his shoulder. 'How about you guys? Do _you_ think it's funny?'

And Rhonda turned quickly, gasping in surprise as a pair of figures stepped slowly out of the darkness. 'Yeah.' said Kim. 'It's a laugh riot. But get used to it - because until the day I send you to prison, I'm going to be on you like a crimefighting shadow!'

Grimm bowed his head slightly in a polite nod. 'Kim.' he said.

Kim glared back at him. 'Grimm.' she answered.

'Hi Ron!' said Rhonda cheerfully, waving down.

'Hey Rhonda!' he said, waving back. Kim looked at him coldly and Ron stopped waving, moving the back of his hand to his mouth and clearing his throat noisily.

They stared at each other in silence for some time. Then Kim and Grimm both looked at Rhonda, who had started whistling the tune from _The Good The Bad and The Ugly_. 'Sorry.' she said, smiling.

Grimm turned back to Kim. 'I know you were waiting for us to take the Overthruster so you could get it on tape and show it to the cops.' he said. 'So _not_ gonna happen. What'll you do now?'

'We go to plan B.' said Kim, her arms raised to an attack posture. 'First Ron and I defeat you - then we turn you over to the police - then we celebrate at Bueno Nacho.'

'You're _presuming_ an awful lot.' said Grimm, chuckling. 'Right now I'd say the only item on your list that has a chance of happening is the last one - and I doubt you'll feel like celebrating once we're finished with you.'

'We'll see.' Kim said. 'Just out of curiosity, where did you get those outfits? No one makes that style anymore.'

Grimm smirked. 'They're called _tailors_ Kim, they're not hard to find. Just look in the phone book next to Occam's Razor.'

Kim flushed a little, remembering the almost ridiculous odyssey she had gone through trying replacements to her mission outfit some time ago. 'Well I guess if you _like_ living in the past.' she said.

Grimm looked surprised. 'You're a fine one to talk,' he said. 'Though I'm impressed you actually kept a straight face saying that while you're wearing bell-bottom pants.'

Kim's eyes narrowed. 'They're not bell-bottoms, they're _flares_!' she said angrily.

Grimm shook his head. 'They're _bell-bottoms_.' he said. 'A throwback to the 70's - the ugliest, gaudiest, tackiest decade in human history. No matter how you label the package, it's still baloney.'

Kim gritted her teeth. 'Are you gonna stand there and lecture me about what you think is _hip_ or are you gonna put up your dukes?'

Grimm turned to Ron. 'Why do you put _up_ with her, Stoppable?' he said, sounding perfectly serious. 'She is such a nag!'

'I am _not_ a nag!' Kim said indignantly. '_Tell_ him, Ron!' she said, turning and glaring at him.

Ron stared at her, his face blank. Then they both looked at Rhonda, who was making a whinnying sound and pursing her lips to imitate horse teeth. 'That's _it_, you're both going down!' Kim growled. 'And don't think your cute little 'make them come to you' routine is gonna work this time, Probable. I'm on to you!'

Grimm smiled, looking even more annoyingly confident than ever. 'Actually,' he said, leaning against the desk and making like he was examining his fingers, 'I've decided that fighting you is no longer a priority for me. You obviously don't take it seriously, so I'm turning things over to someone who's got something to _prove_.'

And with that, Rhonda ran forward and stood in front of Kim, her fists raised, and the light of battle shining in her eyes. Kim looked over at Grimm, ignoring her. 'You're kidding - right?' she said. 'I'm not wasting my time on the sidekick!'

'Yeah come on!' Ron said. 'Give her some _credit_!'

Rhonda smirked, looking suddenly every bit as cocky as Grimm. 'Haven't you heard, pom-pon? I've been upgraded to _partner_!'

Kim again ignored her and instead spoke to Grimm. 'Have you gone soft, Grimm?' she said. 'Totally lame, sending your GF to do the fighting for you!'

Grimm shrugged. 'I'll pitch in if she gets in trouble.' he said. 'But I don't think she will. Frankly Possible, I don't think you have the power to stand against her.'

Kim felt angry. She'd been expecting, and had planned for, an all-out slugfest with Grimm. Instead she was standing in front of Rhonda, who she'd never even thought of as more than a cosmetic accessory to Team Probable. From all she saw and remembered, Rhonda hadn't been much of a fighter, and the thought of pitting her sixteen forms of kung-fu against a no-talent blonde spitfire seemed like an insult. 'I already said I'm_ not _wasting any time with her.'

Rhonda chirruped with her lips and Rueful slithered out of her backpack, scurrying down her leg and over to Grimm's side. 'What'sa matter _bubble-butt_? You scared?'

Kim flinched at hearing the old pet-name her mother had given her. 'Where did you hear...?' she said, but Rhonda broke in.

'Drakken.' Rhonda said, grinning as she saw Kim's cheeks flushing crimson. 'He told us all kinds of funny stories at the last HenchCo convention. People say I'm a geek, but even I wasn't stupid enough to lock braces on my first kiss!'

'I'm _trying_ to spare you the humiliation!' Kim hissed, staring at her fully for the first time. 'But unless you zip it, I'll chew you up for an appetizer before going on to the main course!'

'Ooooh, touchy-touchy! So I finally hit a nerve, huh?' Rhonda said, squaring off with her. 'Well if you don't like what I'm saying, you know how to shut me up! Come on, _bubble-butt_! Or maybe I'd get a better fight out of your wittle Pandawoo!'

Kim was looking madder and madder and Ron looked more and more nervous. _'Oh boy,'_ Ron thought, shaking his head. _'Now you've done it...'_

Both Ron and Grimm stepped to the side and wound up almost standing next to each other as Kim stepped forward. Rueful took a perch on Grimm's shoulder while Rufus shimmied up Ron's arm to get a better view. 'You asked for it, blondie!' Kim snarled.

'Bring it on, carrot-top!' Rhonda answered, twitching her fingers.

Kim and Rhonda began grappling. Kim landed one punch, but Rhonda took it in the shoulder and used a foot sweep that sent them both crashing onto the tiled floor of the lab. Soon they were rolling around on the floor trying to pin each other, grabbing at each other's hair. Grimm paused, staring down at them, then glanced over at Ron. They looked at each other for a moment.

'I don't suppose you've got any popcorn?' said Grimm.

'Oddly enough, I do!' said Ron, pulling a bag of buttered kernels from his pack. They shared the popcorn, munching while they watched the fracas going on before them.

'Rhonda's gonna kick her butt.' said Grimm, taking another handful.

Ron shook his head. 'Sorry my friend, but you and I _both_ know that Kim is better!' Grimm smirked, but said nothing, turning his attention back to the two girls rolling and thrashing on the floor.

Kim felt a momentary sense of frustration. She had never been much of a wrestler, and brief flashes of her muddy tussle with Shego at a Greek spa came back to her. Rhonda, on the other hand, seemed totally in her element. She maneuvered herself so she was behind Kim and her arms wound around her while her legs kept Kim from getting enough purchase against the floor to get to her feet. She felt Rhonda's arms moving into position for a sleeper hold...

'Your kung-fu doesn't mean _jack_ if someone's got control of your body!' Rhonda was growling. 'Too bad one of your sixteen forms isn't _judo_!'

Kim squirmed against Rhonda's grip, realizing that she was right. In all her fights, her one big weakness had been when someone larger and stronger got a good hold and overpowered her with brute force. Her strikes and kicks were usually enough to drop most opponents, but only if she was able to keep a measure of distance between herself and them. By rushing in and underestimating Rhonda, she'd made herself vulnerable. Still, even judo wasn't foolproof.

Rhonda felt Kim's head snap forwards and then back, their skulls knocking painfully together. She cried out in pain, and quicker than she could react, she felt Kim snake out of her hold and roll forwards.

They both got up, breathing heavily as they squared off again. 'Not bad for starters.' Kim said, her smile returning. 'A little more than I bargained for, but judo doesn't mean jack either if your opponent can clobber you before you get too close!'

'Nuh-_uh_!' said Rhonda, grinning.

'I could drop you so fast and in so many different ways you'd never know what hit you.' said Kim. 'Give it up Rhonda, I'm through playing games!'

An evil grin spread across Rhonda's face. 'You want to get serious?' she said. 'Well get ready pom-pon, 'cuz momma's got a brand new bag!' Rhonda tore open a small Velcro flap on her left bicep, then began to chant strange words that Kim didn't understand.

_Omahkkiaayowa, Omahkkiaayowa,  
Nitohpoksiiyikitapiiyi!_

Kim saw a mark on Rhonda's arm that looked like a some kind of pawprint, only it was glowing bright blue. Rhonda let out a scream and threw her head back, her eyes glowing with the same blue light, and Kim faintly heard what sounded like the roar of a grizzly bear mingled with Rhonda's voice.

Rhonda smacked her fists together with a loud _crack_, standing at the ready, her whole form surmounted by a blue halo. She put her arms around a support girder next to her and with a swift wrenching motion, she tore it loose, wielding it as easily as if it were a cardboard tube. _'Batter up_!' said Rhonda, grinning as dust cascaded down from the hole in the ceiling above them.

Kim gasped and went into a crouch as the girder swept above her with a dangerous _whooshing_ sound. Rhonda completed her spin, smoothly raising the girder above her head like a hammer, and Kim rolled to the side. She heard a deafening _clang_ and felt a shockwave along with a spray of shattered tile as the girder slammed into the floor where she had been standing.

Kim backed away as Rhonda hefted the girder once more. With a short yell, she threw it like a javelin and Kim cartwheeled to the side once again. The girder pierced the reinforced concrete wall of the lab and stuck like a dart.

Rhonda was charging towards her with a grating shout, knocking the large lab desks out of her path as if they were bowling pins. She crouched briefly and then leaped into the air with a flying kick. Kim easily dodged the strike, but stared in amazement as a deep, bowl-like depression formed in the wall where Rhonda's foot struck, a spider-web of cracks spreading through the concrete wall.

'Have a _seat_, Possible!' she snarled, righting herself and sending one of the large desks sliding across the floor towards her with a swift kick.

Kim flipped over the desk, which roared beneath her like a passing truck, smashing into other desks and upending chairs. Kim went back to a ready stance, her teeth gritted. Rhonda stepped forward and Kim stepped back, maintaining the space between them.

'Keeping your distance, huh?' Rhonda smirked. 'Pretty smart, pom-pon - or _not_!' Rhonda again grimaced as if in great concentration, the blue glow returned and she drew back her hand.

'_Spirit strike!'_ she shouted, and swept her arm forward in a broad slashing motion. There was a sound like an exploding thunderclap, and from each of her fingers, a bluish white streak spread out, like semi-circular claws. They sped forward with a sound like a freight train, leaving deep furrowing gashes in the floor as they went. Kim gasped, cornered against the cluster of desks piled up behind her.

'_Kim_!!' Ron screamed, as the scythes of energy slammed into the desks with a thundering explosion. He tried to rush forward, but Grimm suddenly blocked his way.

'Uh uh.' he said, smirking. 'I thought you _believed _in her!'

Rhonda stared in satisfaction at the cloud of dust and crumbling stone where the spirit strike had hit. The light faded as the strike diminished, and Rhonda saw the side wall and the cluster of desks, with five wide slashes gouged into them. Then she frowned. 'No _stinkin'_ way!' she growled.

Between two of the slashes, Kim stood in an arched, graceful crouch, looking surprised, but unharmed. She coughed as the dust and debris of the explosion continued to settle.

Ron's jaw was hanging open. 'What... have you been _feeding_ her?' he said.

Grimm took another handful of popcorn from the bag held in Ron's now limp hand. 'Didn't she already say?' he said. 'She's _upgraded_. She's always wanted to step up and I was only too glad to help her. Of course the training got a little rough sometimes...'

'You know me - I _like_ it rough!' said Rhonda with a wink.

'Ew!' said Ron, wrinkling his face.

'I knew it meant the focus would go off me sometimes.' said Grimm. 'But I've never been prouder to play second fiddle.' He raised his fist to Rhonda. 'Baby, you're the greatest!'

Rhonda's face blushed deep red. But at that moment, Kim leaped forward and caught her in the midsection with a flying kick. Rhonda wheezed and they both tumbled backwards, with Rhonda slamming hard against the wall where she had kicked before. The wall, already weakened, crumbled as Rhonda fell against it. But she seized the collar of Kim's shirt and they both disappeared backwards through a Rhonda-shaped hole in the wall.

There was a sound that came back through the hole, a combination of thumping, squealing and grunting. Grimm finished his popcorn and stood facing Ron. He shrugged his shoulder and Rueful leaped onto one of the nearby desks. 'All right Stoppable.' he said. 'Fun's fun, but now it's time we got down to business...'

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Seated behind his keyboard, Wade remained poised and alert. He had several progress bars up on one of his monitors, all reading green. These measured the condition and functionality of the surveillance cameras that he had set up in the labs, and which Kim had told him to keep running at any cost. The main surveillance grids in Yoyodyne were down, but he had set these up independently and they didn't require power or signals from the Yoyodyne systems to work.

He knew Jade had knocked out the Yoyodyne security, and he was monitoring several remote pathlines that could be used to access his own cameras. In addition to that, he was also keeping an eye on things in the lab itself and was watching in surprise as Kim and Rhonda battled.

He was just setting a fraction of his attention aside to see if he could scan Rhonda and see if he could determine what energy was fueling her strength, when a small window popped up on his main monitor and he saw a girl's face with an Asian complexion and rainbow streaks in her hair.

'Hey Wade! Kiss-kiss!' came a chirpy voice. Then the girl was hunching over a keyboard and typing furiously, and Wade saw the progress bar controlling one of his cameras shifting from green toward yellow...

'Jade!' Wade said, his voice low and flat. He had been expecting her to show up, and he was ready for her. He'd been practicing his keyboard fingering speed and studying routines to counter remote access for days since learning Team Probable was back, preparing for this showdown. Their first electronic duel had been a sort of draw, but he had come away from the last one as the clear victor, and he was determined to keep it that way.

He kept his eyes on the monitors, reading the data from his decryption programs, and began typing at once. One camera was already in the red, under Jade's control, and she was starting on the second. For some time there was nothing but the sound of clacking as his fingers blazed across the keys, and he was rewarded by the sight of the progress bar on the first camera shifting from red to yellow. He kept it up with his right hand, using his second hand to start typing on another keyboard. The progress bar on camera 2 stopped it's slow slide towards red and remained in the yellow, hovering back and forth slightly.

He succeeded in re-locking camera 1, and camera 2 was still in flux when camera 3's progress bar started moving towards yellow. He shifted his attention, keeping up the pressure. As he typed and scanned and monitored the cameras, his glance occasionally flicked across the window showing Jade. Her face was looking frustrated and angry, and her hair was looking more ragged. 'Someone's... feeling his... cheerios!' she hissed as she continued typing. Camera 4 started shifting to yellow, and camera 1 did as well, but Wade kept her blocked and the progress bars stayed safely in the green and under his control.

Wade smirked, feeling confident. Jade's intrusion attempts were complicated, but nothing he felt worried about. As long as he stayed focused, there would be no trouble. And he was keeping an eye on his own remote access program, keeping it masked and hunting for the IP address which Jade was using to tamper with the cameras. 'Tell your boss if he tries to take the Overthruster, he should say _cheese_ for the cameras so he'll look good when we forward the pictures to Global Justice and make him famous!' Wade said, his arms and fingers moving swiftly back and forth from keyboard to keyboard.

'Big... freckle-faced..._jerk_!' Jade said, her own arms and hands moving just as quickly.

'Sticks and stones, hacker-girl!' Wade said, smiling. 'After the last time I spiked your systems, you should have known better than to try and take on the champ!'

Focused as he was on the duel and in searching for Jade's IP, Wade did not hear the soft creak of the door to his closet which began to open in the room behind him...

Wade felt a surge of excitement and satisfaction as he found the remote IP address that the intrusion attempts were coming from. 'By the way Jade,' he said triumphantly, 'you've been _Waded_!' And he launched his spike program. On the window showing Jade's face, he saw a series of sparks fly from components on either side of her, and heard her squeal in anger before the window went black.

He quickly tended to the camera progress bars and they were all set back to green in a matter of seconds. 'Wade 2, Jade _zip_!' he said. He was just turning his attention back to the cameras themselves so he could monitor the battle in the labs, when he felt something seize the armrest of his swivel chair.

He was suddenly spun around and hoisted out of the chair by a pair of mechanical arms. A metal cable spun out like a spider web, winding around him from shoulder to ankle, and a metal clamp smoothed a piece of duct tape over his mouth.

He looked in astonishment. His remote field droid was binding him and hauling him to the coat rack mounted on the wall. It was the droid he'd built to replace the one which was destroyed in the Amazon when Ron had gone to fetch the Aurora orchid for Kim. It looped some of the folds of cable holding him and slipped them over one of the wooden pegs, effectively hanging him on the wall. Wade struggled against the metal cords. Since he had begun delivering equipment and information to Kim and Ron in the field, he had nearly forgotten about the Wade-bot 2.0. The monitor on it sparked into life, and Jade's face was staring out at him, looking relaxed and insolent.

'Congrats on frying my tertiary system.' she said. 'But it was worth it to distract you while I took control of _this_ puppy!'

Wade struggled even harder as realization hit him. His duel with Jade had been easy -_ too_ easy. But it was just difficult enough to keep him from thinking that Jade's target might not have been the cameras at all, but something different. The Wade-bot rolled on it's tracks, stopping in front of his computer keyboards and the mechanical arms snaked out, moving so it looked like it was cracking the knuckles on it's robotic hands.

'Should have known better than to take on the champ, huh?' she said. 'Like I _haven't_ been thinking of a workaround to your little tricks all this time! I knew there was no way I could access all your cameras from a remote location. But when you want to block a signal, there's nothing quite as effective as blocking it from the _source_!' The Wade-bot's arms began typing fast on the keyboards, and one by one the progress bars on the cameras went from green to red, and finally the images projected by the cameras onto the large monitor screen to the left of Wade's computer all went black.

Wade glared helplessly and squirmed within the cable holding him, trying to get some slack and get his arms free. He looked at his desk, which was littered with devices that could cut the cord, or fry the Wade-bot's circuits. All out of his reach and useless. He pushed his feet against the wall and tried hoisting himself off the coat rack. He felt himself sliding up and pushed harder. If he could only reach his desk...

A strong metallic hand pushed him in the chest, forcing him back onto the peg. 'Uh uh, hacker-boy!' said Jade, her face glowing at him from the monitor on the Wade-bot. 'You'll be sitting _this_ one out! Wade 1, _Jade_ 1!'

At that moment, the door to Wade's room opened. He looked in wild hope to the doorway, seeing his mother standing there. 'Wade - what in _Sam_ Hill are you doing in here?'

Wade struggled, trying to force the tape off with his tongue and speak at the same time. _'Mmmm! Hmmmf! Viffff krmmmm gmmm hmmmvem mmm!'_

One arm of the Wade-bot kept him pinned against the wall, but the torso swiveled and the other arm gave what looked like a jaunty wave. 'Hi Mrs. Load!' Jade chirped.

Mrs. Load glared at the Wade-bot. 'Who are _you_?' she said, her voice sounding impatient.

Jade grinned. 'Just one of Wade's Everlot buddies.' she said. 'We're in the middle of a_ role-playing scenario_.' she said, making air quotes with the Wade-bot's hands.

'Izzat so?' said Mrs. Load, still looking impatient and putting her hands on her hips. 'Looks to me like you've got my boy hog-tied and gagged. What kind of 'scenario' is that?'

Jade shrugged. 'Beats me.' she said. 'All I know is he's supposed to be the 'hero' of the adventure and he's set to bust loose in five minutes and clean my clock.'

_'Nnnnn! Snnnn nnnynnn!' _Wade said, shaking his head vigorously.

'Five minutes, huh?' said Mrs. Load, looking slightly less annoyed. 'That oughtta give him_ just_ enough time to get ready for bed - which is where he's _supposed_ to be in fifteen minutes!'

Jade raised the Wade-bot's hand in a salute. 'Can do, Mrs. L!' she grinned. 'By the way, Wade's been going on and _on_ about your lemon squares - any chance I could try one?'

Mrs. Load's eyes betrayed a flicker of succumbing to the flattery. 'Well it's late, but you do look a little skinny.' she said. 'I'll bring one, count it - _one_ lemon square. And when I get back, I expect to see my boy down off that wall and _done_ with his 'scenario'. I don't care if he's set to become the grand poobah of role playing, this is _it_ for the night!'

Wade let out a garbled string of muffled words, but his mother had already turned and walked away, leaving the door open. Jade was turning back to him with a wicked grin. 'How long before she realizes I'm in a computer screen and can't eat anything?' she said. The Wade-bot rolled back and she resumed typing on his keyboards. 'Well, we don't want any of your camera footage left undeleted.' she went on. 'And I'd better reset the passwords for good measure...'

Wade resumed his struggling, but Jade had already left the keyboards and was scribbling on a post-it note with one of Wade's pens. She stuck the paper to the coils around Wade's chest before backing away and spreading out the Wade-bot's arms with a polite bow.

'Been a blast, Wade! Wish I could stick around for the lemon square, but missing dessert has never been this _sweet_!' One robotic hand raised up to the screen and Jade made a kissing motion while the hand flicked towards him. Then the screen went black and the Wade-bot went limp.

Wade glared at his robot furiously. He looked down at the note on his chest, struggling to read it upside-down. In hasty, scrawled writing, it read, "I was beaten by Jade". _ 'Snn ffmm bmmm!' _he muffled through his gag, and kicked the wall.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Back at Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems, Rhonda and Kim had crashed through the wall and disappeared, leaving Ron and Grimm facing off. Both of them went into practiced stances of Tai Shing Pek Kwar. 'Kicking you guys around is a hoot, but we've got a job to do.' said Grimm. 'Before we go on, I guess I should ask - am I facing Kim Possible's _partner_ or her _stooge_?'

'I'm the _sidekick_.' said Ron, though saying it somehow made him feel smaller as he thought of how proudly Rhonda had declared she was a _partner_ to Grimm.

'Right then.' said Grimm. 'I'll just kick you to the side. I hear you're also a master of Tai Shing Pek Kwar.' he went on, 'And we saw some of your chops when we were working for you. Let's see if you've been practicing.'

It occurred to Ron that he had never seen Grimm actually _instigate_ an attack, and that he may have thus been fooled into thinking that Grimm didn't know how to fight unless someone else made the first move. But that illusion was quickly dispelled as Grimm leaped at him with a high kick that he barely sidestepped.

Grimm struck again with both fists, then with a roundhouse kick. Ron grunted as he blocked and dodged, his arms stinging with pain as they took the brunt of the attack. He slid back, winding up a few steps away from Grimm. He went into a crane stance, curling his fingers. 'Wauuuh! Waaaauuu_sha-sha-sha-sha_!' he squealed, stepping down into a crouch and whipping his arms from side to side.

Grimm smirked and went into a mirror crouch with one arm raised behind him, the other lowered in front. He twitched one finger towards Ron, beckoning him. They clashed, and there was a flurry of strikes and blocks. Ron gritted his teeth as he alternated punches, only to see Grimm leaning from side to side, and his punches hitting only empty air.

On Ron's next punch, Grimm seized his wrist and whirled around, catapulting Ron forward in a tumbling roll. 'Hey, _ow_!' Ron shouted as he clattered into the shattered pile of desks which Rhonda had pushed against the far wall. He got painfully back to his feet, only to find Grimm right in front of him, standing at the ready and waiting.

Ron struck at him with as much skill as he could muster, but Grimm deflected each of his blows. And all the while, the sounds of Kim battling with Rhonda echoed in the background. 'Wonder how your GF is doing against my GF?' Grimm said quietly, trading blows with Ron.

'Don't worry about Kim!' Ron said, forcing a smile. 'She's handled bad guys tougher _and_ meaner than Rhonda! She's never been beaten by a sidekick, not even Shego!'

Grimm smiled. 'Then she's in trouble because she's facing my _partner_.' he said.

As Ron and Grimm kept fighting and circling around each other, Rufus and Rueful also were engaged in a duel of mole rat vs. weasel. They chittered and squeaked as they tumbled, grappling, scratching and snapping at each other.

'How does it feel knowing we've got the upper hand on you?' said Grimm.

'Says _who_?' Ron answered.

'Normally, you'd be fighting Rhonda and Kim would be _trying_ to fight me.' said Grimm, with sarcastic emphasis on the word _trying_. 'Rhonda's stepped up. And not only that - I've been _helping_ her to train and use her powers. So where are _your_ powers when you really need them? Tell me something Stoppable - how long have you had Mystical Monkey Power?'

'Three weird and scary years...' said Ron, still trying to break through Grimm's defenses.

'And in those years, how many times has Kim offered to help you train and to unlock that power?'

Ron blinked. The fact was, Kim had _never _trained him. He'd largely been left to his own devices, except for one week at Yamanouchi which he'd been all too eager to leave.

And Grimm seemed to know it. 'Has she even _asked_ if you'd like to have help? Has she offered to sacrifice any of her time? Has she even bothered to have Wade look into any research that might help you to understand your Monkey Power or tap into it? Don't bother answering - I can tell just by looking that the sum total of time she's spent 'helping' you adds up to a big fat _zero_.'

Ron struck again, but only half-heartedly, and Grimm easily deflected it. And the only rejoinder he could think of was a defiant 'So?'

Grimm smiled evilly. 'Let me ask you another question - _why hasn't she tried to help you_?'

And Ron found himself unable to answer. Grimm went on, knowing he'd scored a hit and twisting the point in mercilessly. 'If she's so eager for you to step up, why hasn't she _done_ anything about it? She too _busy_? Too _important_? Like you're a waste of time? She's got skill and training. There's lots of things she _could _be teaching you! With your monkey power you could be a big help to her - an _equal_. And yet she's perfectly content to keep you as the loser sidekick and let them crop you out of every news photo so _she_ can be front and center!'

Ron's eyes narrowed. 'Hey come on - Kim's not like that!' and he tried a spinning foot sweep, but Grimm flipped over him, landing behind.

'Name the last post-mission photo that included _both_ of you.' he said quickly. 'And when you saved Cueler, did Kim look_ happy_ that you were in the spotlight while she was standing in the background, sopping wet and covered with mud?' Ron tried to elbow him while spinning round to face him. Grimm weaved to the side and countered Ron's follow-up strike. Grimm twisted round and put Ron into a half-nelson, slamming him against the wall and holding him there.

'I'm no soothsayer,' he said quietly while Ron struggled in his grip. 'But I think I can predict two future events. One: Me and Rhonda are gonna _win_ this fight. And two: Kim is gonna be so tweaked about getting beat by Rhonda that she'll finally try and teach you how to use your Monkey Powers.'

He released Ron, who nearly fell down, but spun quickly and faced him again, his arms raised and ready. But Grimm no longer looked like he wanted to fight. He stood looking keenly at Ron with his characteristic smirk. 'And when she does,' he said, glaring. 'You ask yourself - is she training you because she wants you to be her equal? Or is she just_ using_ you to get what_ she_ wants?'

There was a thundering blast that shook the building. Grimm looked off to the side. 'Sounds like your GF is in trouble.' he said. 'Go and help her, if you think you can. I won't stop you.'

Ron glared back at him for a moment, then he walked warily around him and dashed towards the hole in the wall where Kim and Rhonda had gone through. Rufus, seeing Ron moving away, broke off his duel with Rueful and scampered after him. Grimm stayed where he was until Ron and Rufus were out of sight. At once, he took out his communicator. 'Time, Jade.' he said. 'Did you kill the cameras?'

Jade's face popped up on the screen. 'Done and done, G-man!' she chirped. 'That double-blind you suggested was just the ticket! The Overthruster is safe to grab!'

'Badical.' said Grimm, smiling. 'We'll be leaving in a few - be sure to screen our exit.' Then he shut off the communicator and returned to the center desk, removing the Overthruster from it's protective housing and putting it into his pack...

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

As they fell back through the gaping hole in the concrete wall, Kim found herself on top of Rhonda. She tucked and rolled, planting her feet firmly in Rhonda's gut before using her as a springboard to tumble forwards. She landed on her feet and was standing ready while Rhonda surged up and whirled around.

They were in a room lined with computer banks, though the large area in the center of the room was clear. It felt very cold and Kim heard several high powered air conditioning vents humming above her.

Rhonda saw the end of the girder she had thrown, sticking through a smaller hole next to the one they had tumbled through. She rolled to the side, gripping it with both hands and pulling it loose with one heave, sending blocks of concrete spilling into the room. Then she was attacking again, holding the girder with both hands like a bo staff. She struck several times, the girder moving as quickly and smoothly as a baton.

Kim was able to keep ahead of the strikes, and looked in surprise at Rhonda's fingers, which were sinking into the steel with the force of her grip. She waited until after one of Rhonda's swings, and then fired the grapple line from her wrist Kimmunicator. The cable twined around Rhonda's ankles, and thrown off balance by her strike, Rhonda flailed and crashed to the floor. The girder slid heavily across the concrete with a harsh grating sound.

Without waiting, Kim leaped to the attack, aiming a powerful kick at Rhonda's chest. But Rhonda stood up and took the kick full on. Kim felt the pressure against her leg, as if she were kicking at something much heavier and stronger than a teenage girl. Rhonda gripped her ankle and Kim felt a sharp pain as Rhonda spun around and sent her spiraling backwards. She regained her balance just in time to land on her feet instead of tumbling across the floor and into the computer banks against the farther wall.

She stood up again, breathing hard. Her kick should have put Rhonda down, but Rhonda was smiling as she got up, reaching down and snapping the cable around her ankles like old string. 'Not bad, huh?' she said, sneering. 'Bet you wish _your_ sidekick had powers! Oh wait - he _does_! So why's he not here pitching in?'

Kim glared at her. 'Maybe he knows I don't need to use powers as a crutch.' she said.

Rhonda's eyes narrowed. 'Or maybe he _can't_ use them for you because you're not important to him.' she said.

'As _if_.' Kim growled.

Rhonda smirked. 'He used them for _us_ without any trouble.' she said. 'In fact when he was using his Monkey mojo to smack _you_ around it looked like the easiest thing in the world for him.'

Kim gritted her teeth. She didn't dare get too close to risk Rhonda getting a good hold on her. As strong as she seemed to be, Kim imagined that breaking bones would be no trouble for her. Yet her attacks didn't seem to be slowing Rhonda down either. She gasped softly as she saw Rhonda raise her arm, her fingertips glowing bluish white.

_'Spirit strike_!'

The white sickles of light spread out from the arc of Rhonda's swing and Kim ducked again, seeing the attack flash just above her head. She heard an exploding noise, and there was a smell of electronic components burning as sparks flashed all around her and circuits rained down on top of her.

She rolled and lashed out with a kick to ward off the attack that she knew would be coming as a follow up, and heard Rhonda grunt as her shoe connected with her chin. But Rhonda came on in a flying tackle, and her arms wound around Kim's waist.

Kim struggled, feeling Rhonda's grip tightening, and just managed to slide down and out of her arms. But Rhonda was able to hook a finger around Kim's belt and with a rolling heave, she sent her tumbling to the other side of the room.

Kim was gasping with the effort of the fight now, sweat running down her forehead. Rhonda seemed irritatingly normal and unwinded. 'You're _not_ gonna win this!' Kim said, her voice hoarse, but determined.

Rhonda laughed. 'You just keep telling yourself that when Grimm and I walk away from this fight with all the marbles, just like we did at the warehouse last time we met!' Then she went into a ready stance and stood waiting for Kim to make her next move. 'You _do_ remember that, don't you pom-pon? When your BF was _our _boss?'

Kim glared. 'Yeah, I remember.' she said.

Rhonda looked cunningly at her. 'I bet it still steams you royally.' she said. 'You_ jealous_? Jealous because we did more for Ron by making him evil than you _ever_ did for him when he was good? Face it pom-pon - Ron was faster, stronger and smarter when he was on _our_ side! Maybe he only steps up depending on the quality of the company he's with!'

Kim felt her cheeks blazing. But she bit her lip, remembering the promise she'd made to herself before they had set things up in the lab. She had gone through a number of mental exercises to block things out, but she had anticipated using them against Grimm, not Rhonda. '_They are not going to get to me!'_ she thought. _'So not gonna happen this time!'_

Rhonda shifted her stance and Kim braced herself. She flipped and cartwheeled, narrowly being missed as Rhonda charged at her like a wrecking ball. Rhonda used the wall to arrest her forward momentum, and the entire room shook as she pushed against it, deep cracks spreading through the concrete, the banks of computers that were still standing rattled on their metal shelves.

'Nice moves!' Rhonda sneered. 'Maybe if _you_ had powers you could be more than just a moving target!' She raised her hand again, and the bluish white glow again surrounded her fingertips...

_'Kim!'_ Rhonda whirled as Ron clamored through the hole leading back to the main labs. He ran at Rhonda, his fist raised to strike...

'Ron, _don't_...!' Kim shouted, but he was already too close. Rhonda shifted into a judo toss that sent Ron sailing across the room where he slammed into Kim and they both fell backwards onto the floor.

Rhonda stepped in front of them, cracking her knuckles as they struggled to their feet. 'Well, if it isn't Mystical Monkey boy!' she said. 'What do you think happens when you put a monkey and a bear in a cage fight? Anybody want to bet on the monkey?' But her wristwatch gave a sudden beep and she looked at it for a moment before looking back down at Kim and Ron. 'Awww, playtime's over.' she said. She ran to the wall and with a haymaker punch, she blasted another hole in the concrete next to the one that was already there. As she slipped through the hole, she reached back and gripped the metal shelves holding the remaining computes and pulled hard. The shelves slid roughly to the side, blocking the way behind her.

Kim raced after her with Ron behind and Rufus clinging to the flap of Ron's pants pocket. They struggled through the rubble and the computer banks which blocked their path. When they finally got through and were back in the dim light of the main lab, they saw Rhonda had already reached the far wall and was kicking it hard. Chunks of concrete and masonry scattered everywhere.

Rhonda turned to face Kim and Ron, stepping aside from the truck-sized hole she had made in the wall, which opened up to the night outside. Kim was just wondering where Grimm was, as there was no sign of him, when a deep purple motorcycle sped into the room through the hole. The bike's engines nearly silent. Grimm sat astride the bike and put two fingers to his lips, making a piercing whistle. 'We're done here partner!' he said. 'Let's ride!' Rhonda made an insolent bow to Kim and Ron, then ran to the bike and got behind Grimm, throwing her arms around his chest. Rueful hopped from Grimm's shoulder to Rhonda's.

Kim looked at her grapple line, snapped and useless. They were still on the other side of the lab and there was no way they would reach Team Probable in time before they sped off. 'Ron!' she said.

'On it, Kim!' he said. 'Rufus - shuriken maneuver!' Rufus nodded and jumped into Ron's hand, jutting all his limbs out and pursing his lips until his teeth poked outwards, gleaming and sharp. Grimm was backing up, turning the bike in preparation for an exit.

With a flick of his wrist, Ron sent Rufus whistling through the air. His teeth sank into the front tire of the bike. There was a hissing noise and the tire deflated, the front of the bike sinking down a couple of inches while Grimm and Rhonda stared. Rufus fell down, looking dizzy and staggering away from the bike with a smile.

'Naked Mole Rat bites!' said Ron, grinning. 'Not quite llama bites, but just as good!'

Grimm smirked and hit a control on the dashboard. There was a quiet humming and two nacelles extended out from the side of the bike. It rose up two feet, hovering in the air. With a high pitched whine, it sped forward, skimming around the walls of the lab like a stakeboarder in a rink.

The bike scudded by, and both Grimm and Rhonda put their hands to their foreheads with their index fingers and thumbs extended to form a crude "L". Rhonda was sticking out her tongue. 'So long, _losers!'_ she yelled. Then with a blast that whipped through Kim and Ron's hair, the bike shot out through the hole in the wall.

Ron's mouth fell open. 'They have a _flying_ motorcycle??!' he squeaked. 'Oh that is _so_ awesome - I can't believe no one's ever thought of anything like that!!!' Then he caught Kim's furious glare, and quickly said, 'I mean, how _dare_ they!'

Kim reached the hole in the wall and stared up. She could see a small dot rising higher and higher until it disappeared into the clouds. She ground her teeth together and kicked hard at an edge of the torn wall, but had to bite her lip as pain exploded in her toes. In spite of all her preparations, in spite of all their planning and caution, there could be no doubt - Team Probable had beaten them again.

Coming Soon:  
Chapter 5

_Dogs have a lot. Cats have none.  
Humans have it, to varying degrees.  
What is it?_


	6. Ch 5: Loyalty

A Friend In Darkness  
All Things Probable 3

A Kim Possible Fanfiction  
by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and its affiliates, etc. etc.

Chapter 6  
Loyalty  
_Or: Strained Pleas_

The door to Grimm's room opened and light spilled into it, a yellow glare slicing through a black emptiness until Grimm hit a switch and the pale light from fluorescent lamps bathed the room. His room was untidy, with computers and other devices fighting with a jumble of boxes and unfolded clothes for dominance over an array of furniture.

Rhonda was still talking. She'd been talking almost non-stop from the moment they had left the labs, going over the fight step by step. '...then I was coming at her with the girder and she's like, _'no way!'_ And I'm like, '_yes way_!' and she's like, '_my cheerleader moves will stop you_!' And I'm like, '_go ahead and try it!_' And when the second spirit strike almost hit her she's like, '_Oh you did not just do that!'_ and I'm like, '_Oh yes I did!_' And then Ron shows up and I knock them _both_ down like dominos and then...'

While she was talking, Grimm laid his pack down on the table and picked up a large lead-lined case. He fit his pack into it carefully and closed it with a _click_. He turned back to Rhonda, who was still talking as if she were on a timer that was about to expire.

'... and I'm like _wham, wham wham_, and the wall's like, '_Oh no, have mercy on me Rhonda, you're just too strong!'_ And that's when you zoomed in and...'

'Rhonda...' he said, putting both hands on her shoulders. '..will you please _shut up_?' Then he bent his head quickly and kissed her on her lips. The room was quiet for several seconds before they finally broke apart.

'_Woah._..' Rhonda breathed. 'What was _that_ for...?'

Grimm held her close. 'It's traditional.' he said softly. 'The post-victory kiss. You like?'

'Uh-huh...' she said without thinking.

There was a four-note_ beep_ from Grimm's communicator. Grimm held it up, but he kissed Rhonda again, and didn't answer the tinny voice that sounded through the room.

'Guys?' Jade said. She craned her neck, trying to match the tilt of the communicator held loosely in Grimm's hand. _'Guys_?' she said again. 'Hey, I hate to interrupt, but you realize we haven't _delivered_ the Overthruster to our client yet.'

Grimm finally turned to Jade and leveled out the communicator screen. 'I hear you Jade.' he said, his voice sounding a little husky, but becoming more business like. Rhonda was blushing, leaning her head against his so they both filled the screen on Jade's monitor.

Jade made a gagging noise, gesturing as if she were pushing a finger down her throat.

'Grow _up_, Jade.' said Grimm, though he was smiling at Rhonda as he spoke.

'You didn't forget our cautionary measures?' Jade said. 'It'd be tragically funny after the win if they suckered us with a bug or something while you're celebrating prematurely...'

'Relax.' Grimm answered. 'My pack was lead-lined as normal, and it's in the shield case right now until we get it analyzed and screened. We scanned for tracking devices before we came home, the jammers in my room are on, everything's cool.'

'Yeah, cool...' said Rhonda dreamily.

'And for that matter, how'd it go with Wade? You're sure he won't be able to trace you?' Grimm said.

Jade grinned. 'Not a snowball's chance.' she said brightly. 'I even gave him a couple of souvenirs to make sure he doesn't forget the experience anytime soon...'

Grimm was still staring into Rhonda's eyes, and she was staring back at him looking totally moonstruck. 'Then we gear up for the future.' he said. 'Possible's lot isn't gonna roll over after this drubbing. They'll still be after us full bore and we'll need to stay sharp.'

'Yeah, sharp...' said Rhonda softly.

Jade rolled her eyes. 'Will you two _stop_ that? Yeesh, people in love are such a royal pain in the_ patookus_...'

'Yeah, patookus...' Rhonda said, sounding dazed.

Jade shook her head. 'If one of you isn't over here with that case in the next few minutes, I'm gonna buzz your _parents_. Or your _sisters_... Rueful, help me out here!'

And at the mention of his name, Rueful sprang out of Rhonda's backpack, hopping onto the nearby table. He turned and stared at Rhonda and Grimm with his mouth hanging comically open, his paws raised to his stubby ears in a posture of mock astonishment.

'All right, fine.' said Grimm. 'Jade, start coordinating with the client about the drop-off. Rhonda and I will bring the item to your place so you can check it over. See you in a few.'

But once the communicator was off, Grimm pulled Rhonda down onto the beanbag chair in the middle of the floor and they sat together side by side. Rhonda was surprised. 'I thought you said...' she started, but Grimm put one arm around her shoulders.

'I said we'd see her in a few. That _gives_ us a few minutes to just... enjoy the moment.' he said.

She relaxed in his arms, feeling his hand close softly around her own hand. She smiled bashfully. Grimm's mood was what she could only describe as _frisky_. She knew he'd never try anything untoward because they'd both agreed on several 'ground rules' when they started shipping. She also knew the mood would wear off soon and it would be back to the training yard. Still, it was a nice change of pace to see him so mellow.

_'I should fight Kim Possible more often...'_ she thought.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Kim opened the door to her house, made straight for the couch and sat down without saying anything. Ron followed her in somewhat nervously, closing the door behind him as quietly as he could. Rufus was poking his head out of Ron's pants pocket, his whiskers twitching.

'How you feeling, KP?' he said, and instantly wished he hadn't. Kim sent him a withering glance and Ron tried desperately to look nonchalant. He sat down next to her, wondering if he should hold her hand or something. He decided not to try just yet, given that both her hands were clenched into knotted balls that were creaking with tension.

'So... a flying motorcycle and... _powers_, huh?' he tried again. 'Guess they've been busy. That fight was...'

'...a _disaster_.' Kim finished, breaking in. 'It was bad enough when they were just mercenary jerks. Now they're mercenary jerks with _mojo_.'

'Hego said they had powers when he called you, right?' Ron ventured.

Kim nodded and her frown became more thoughtful. 'I thought they'd _tricked_ Hego somehow.' Kim said. 'Grimm likes stacking the deck in his favor before a fight, and it makes it seem like he's tougher than he actually is. I thought that was what happened in Go City.'

'They made off with the Oscillasha... The oscarmeyer... the... the _thingy_,' said Ron. 'But we were trying to stop the theft _and_ catch Grimm on tape. We might have blown the first thing, but how about the second...?'

'I'm not sure.' said Kim. 'We lost contact with Wade during the fight. I've been trying to raise him, but...' And at that instant, her Kimmunicator sounded its familiar beeping tones. Kim raised her wrist at once. Wade's face appeared on the Kimmunicator screen. He was eating a lemon square and looking uncharacteristically grumpy. 'Wade?' she said. 'Where have you been? I checked the cameras before we left Yoyodyne and they were all down!'

'I know.' Wade muttered, taking another bite out of the lemon square.

Kim sighed. 'Well they must have recorded Grimm and Rhonda _entering_ the lab. So we can at least place them at the scene...'

'Actually, we _can't_.' said Wade. 'All the data from the cameras was deleted or corrupted so badly that analyzing it would be pointless.'

Kim put her hand over her eyes for a moment before answering. 'Wade, we _needed_ that footage to get Team Probable on the wanted list! What _happened_?'

'I don't want to talk about it.' Wade said, looking uncomfortably off to the side.

'Was it _Jade_?'

'I _don't_ want to talk about it!' Wade snapped.

'But you _beat_ her last time!' Kim said. 'How could she out-hack you?'

'She _didn't _out-hack me.' Wade said defensively. 'She... _out-flanked_ me.'

'What?'

Wade sighed. 'I blocked every attempt she made to deactivate the cameras.' he said. 'But she used it as a dodge to take control of the Wade-bot. She... tied me up and used my own computer to turn off the cameras. I only just got loose.'

'Oh _man_!' Ron said clutching his head. 'Getting tied up by a girl - normally I'd be _happy_ for you...'

'Tell me about it.' said Wade, and he was shaking his head, covering his eyes with his hand.

'I guess super genius genes _don't_ come in so handy...' Kim muttered.

'Hey, don't talk to me about _super genius genes_!' Wade said, looking angry. 'I'm not the only one who didn't come through! Why haven't you guys got Grimm and Rhonda in handcuffs?'

Kim felt stung. 'Rhonda had _powers_, I couldn't stop her!'

'_Shego_'s got powers too - I thought you could do _anything_!'

Rufus was squeaking and shaking his head. 'Guys!' Ron said, his voice rising above theirs. 'Team Probable isn't here - why are we _still_ fighting?'

Both Kim and Wade fell quiet. The silence hung in the air for several uncomfortable seconds. 'Sorry Wade.' she said. 'OK - we start again. The goal hasn't changed. We need to find out where Team Probable will hit next and come up with ways to stop them. We just need to adjust for whatever Rhonda's using for her blonde bombshell act.' She looked at Wade. 'Did Jade leave your systems intact?'

Wade was still looking sulky, and his voice was flat when he answered. 'Yeah. She only had time to delay me long enough for Grimm and Rhonda to get away.'

'The more you can find out about Rhonda, the better. She had some kind of mark on her arm, and she was chanting something before she went all super-saiyan.'

'I'm on it.' Wade said, nodding.

'Please and thank you.' Kim said, though it was missing her usual chirpyness. The Kimmunicator screen went blank.

Ron sat quietly, looking at Kim, who was staring at her Kimmunicator, her face looking thoughtful. 'Ron,' Kim said, and her voice sounded impassive. 'If Wade can't find out how to nullify Rhonda's powers, then we need to come up with something to_ match _them. I think... it's time we tried to find a way to use your Mystical Monkey Power.'

Ron flinched slightly where he sat. 'I need to know more about it.' she went on. 'What exactly can it do? What are _you_ capable of doing when you use it? Rhonda seemed to have super-strength, and she was able to take a lot more punishment, not to mention that weird energy blast. When you've used Monkey Power, I saw you using Tai Shing Pek Kwar with more skill than anything I've ever seen before.'

Ron bit his lip. 'KP... there's no need to start a Mystical Monkey quest.' he said. 'I mean, you always knew if I wanted training I'd ask...'

Kim laid a hand on his. 'And I know that sometimes it takes a nudge get you started. You haven't _asked_ for training. But do you agree with what's going on now, you _need_ it?'

Ron looked away, but nodded. 'You don't have to...' he said, his voice hesitant.

Kim stared hard at him. 'Ron you've had Mystical Monkey Power for a long time,' she said, 'And I don't think I've ever appreciated what it meant, especially after that thing with the Transducer. I should have helped you to understand it right away. We... _I_ let it rest for too long. But that's something we can both change. Tomorrow, we'll train _together_.'

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Later at his house, Ron was washing his face and getting ready for bed. He found himself looking in the mirror, his reflection staring back at him with the same expression he'd had on his face when impersonating 'The Kid' and playing poker.

He heaved a great sigh as his mind went over everything that had happened that night, including what Grimm had said. He knew Grimm was a head-gamer; he knew that he couldn't be trusted. But he had predicted the outcome of the fight and Kim's reaction so perfectly that he couldn't help wondering.

_'Kim is gonna be so tweaked about getting beat by Rhonda that she'll finally try and teach you how to use your Monkey Powers...'_

He laid down on his bed in his pajamas without getting under the covers, staring at the ceiling. Rufus was scampering around him, moving towards his own pillow. Three whole years since he'd gotten Mystical Monkey Power. And hardly any indication from Kim that she had ever considered it more than a novelty. Now suddenly when it looked like Team Probable had a leg up on them because of a super-strong Rhonda, Kim wanted him to develop it.

_'And when she does, you ask yourself - is she training you because she wants you to be her equal? Or is she just using you to get what she wants?'_

Ron scowled, clenching his hands. _'Kim is not like Grimm.'_ he thought. _'She's not a user!' _ He was also nervous about _training_ side by side with Kim. More often than not, when on missions, she did all the real fighting. When he tried pitching in, he invariably did little more than get in her way, and it was only on rare occasions that he actually _beat_ somebody. How would things go when training alongside her, or actually _sparring_ with her?

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Kim laid down in bed, her eyes flicking across her Pandaroo which was laid carefully on one of the side pillows.

_'Maybe I'd get a better fight out of your wittle Pandawoo!'_

She had intended to go right to sleep and try to forget the night's events, to hopefully get a fresh start with any frustration burned out over the course of the night. But seeing Pandaroo made Rhonda's words pop into her head. And before she could stop it, her mind made the leap from what Rhonda had said about Pandaroo to the _other_ things she had said.

_'You jealous? Because we did more for Ron by making him evil than you ever did for him when he was good?'_

Normally after a meeting with Team Probable, she came away picking over Grimm's head games. Now she was obsessing over Rhonda. She thought of all the times Ron had stepped up. The Fearless Ferret sitch, his battle with Eric, not to mention Monkey Fist. And she couldn't help thinking about the things she might have done to continue with and build on the potential he had shown.

When she'd learned that Yamanouchi was a ninja school, had she encouraged Ron to continue martial arts studies after the exchange program? When she learned that Ron was infused with Mystical Monkey Power, had she even looked it up to see what it was?

In terms of _training_, she had to admit there was little they had done together. Kim had her own training, and her cheerleader skills which she honed every day. Ron had his running away skills, and 'the Ron Factor'. And they'd had an ongoing understanding which bordered on _expectation_, that when they went out on missions it would all somehow come together. And it usually did. They didn't win _every_ time, like the sitch in Big 6 when Adrena Lynn had escaped. But somehow, in the end, they came out on top.

_'Face it pom-pon - Ron was faster, stronger and smarter when he was on our side! Maybe he only steps up depending on the quality of the company he's with!'_

With chilling clarity, she saw Ron dressed as Zorpox, wielding the Lotus Blade, with an array of dangerous inventions and an army of robots which he'd built in less than a day. She saw him laughing maniacally in Go Tower as he single-handedly took on an army of Wegos, and he had flattened them all.

_Potential Boy._ If Ron had a super-hero alter ego, that would probably be it. He had so much potential. And she'd been content to let it idle. Partly because she didn't want to _push_ Ron if he didn't want to develop himself, and partly... Her nails dug into her palms as she clenched her hands while lying on the soft mattress. She didn't like where her thoughts were leading her. But the memory of Ron being lauded by the MIDX news crew while essentially _dissing_ her came clearly.

_'I want him to be good - but not better than me...'_

She hated how selfish it sounded. And she hated herself for even thinking it. She hated how she'd nearly _jelled_ when Ron had gotten the good press that was normally lavished on her. She'd gotten props from the media so often that she had come to ignore it most of the time, like white noise that she'd heard so much it just didn't register anymore. But those brief times when it had been _gone_, she had most definitely felt it - especially when it was focused on someone else.

Kim thought about Grimm and Rhonda, no doubt celebrating wherever they were. She felt a surge of determination. If Team Probable was trying to play her by taunting her about not training Ron, then she would prove they were wrong. She would help train Ron. And if he stepped up and got more media attention, she would _not_ jell. Ron deserved any time in the spotlight he got.

She felt comforted as she drifted off to sleep, sure as she had ever felt in a long time that she was doing the right thing - for Ron and herself.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

_It had taken them a few days before Wade had gathered enough information to track down Team Probable. They were stealing more equipment, and they learned it was to help Professor Dementor launch another one of his schemes._

_At Kim's urging, Ron faced off with Rhonda. The two of them clashed, normally at first, but as the battle continued, Rhonda pulled open the patch on her left arm. She chanted softly, then with a great shout like the roar of a wild animal, she charged._

_But Ron was ready. A strange feeling of inner peace, combined with the savage fury of a pack of wild monkeys, came over him, just as it had at Yamanouchi. And though he could not see it clearly himself, a blue glow surrounded him. Loose items on the floor around him raised up and he ran to meet her._

_They struck with tremendous energy. The walls nearby collapsed and crumbled. Rhonda lashed out with her spirit strike, but Ron easily avoided it, practically dancing through the sickles of white light that she sent speeding towards him. Then he was crouching in front of Rhonda, his arms raised in front of him. Rhonda seemed confused, as Ron was not near enough to hit her, but there was a shuddering sound that rose to a high pitch. Ron thrust his hands out and Rhonda flew backwards as if thrown by invisible hands._

_Grimm had been some distance behind them, battling with Kim, but he looked in surprise as Rhonda tumbled through the air, colliding with him and sending them both sprawling across the floor._

_Rhonda lay unconscious. Grimm was struggling to his elbows, but stunned by the impact. His left arm and left leg were twitching and it was clear that only will power was keeping him awake._

_'This... isn't over!' he hissed through gritted teeth. 'This can't be over...!'_

_'It's so over Grimm.' said Kim, smiling down at them. 'Deal with it!'_

_'It looks like I underestimated you...' said Grimm, his voice fading to a hoarse whisper._

_'Got that right!' said Ron proudly. 'Who's got the mad monkey moves? Booooo-yah!'_

_'Not you...' said Grimm, and his eyes, already going out of focus, flicked towards Kim. 'I mean Kim. 'Who knew you could play your own sidekick so well? What did you do to get him motivated? Threaten to dump him if he didn't come through? I gotta hand it to you Possible... You're stone cold...' And then he fell limp next to Rhonda._

_And Kim stood smiling with satisfaction as Team Probable was chained up and carted away in a police wagon. 'Well that's that...' Ron said, dusting his hands. 'Nothing left now but to hit Bueno Nacho and celebrate!'_

_'That's that?' said Kim, a curious gleam in her eyes. 'Are you whack, Ron? This is just the beginning!'_

_'Huh...?' Ron said._

_'Don't go soft on me now.' she said. 'If your monkey power can take down Team Probable, just imagine what it can do to Drakken and Shego!'_

_'What... right now?' said Ron. 'But... the Nacos are calling...'_

_'Forget Nacos!' Kim said, and her voice was rising. 'We have a chance now to shut down every villain in the world!' She put both her hands on his shoulders, and he could feel her nails digging in, even through the gloves._

_'Uh... Kim?' Ron said. 'Personal space...'_

_'Dementor... The Seniors... Killigan... The Bebes... With your Mystical Monkey Power, none of them would stand a chance against us!' Kim said. Her eyes were wide, and her mouth was curling into a smile that showed almost all of her pearly white teeth._

_Ron was trying to back away, but Kim's grip felt like iron, and her face continued to twist, her grin becoming wider and wider. 'Kim!' he shouted._

_But Kim's face began melting, dissolving into a mass of green sludge. And even as her head continued to bubble and cave in on itself, she was laughing..._

And Ron sat up in bed, cold beads of sweat running down his forehead. He reached in panic for the phone and had his thumb on the speed dial for Kim's number. But then a memory flashed through his mind about another time when he'd called Kim up in the late hours.

_'We kissed.' said Kim's voice, sounding melodic and dreamy, even over the telephone._

_'Yeah...' said Ron, his voice taking on the same shy, but pleased sound. 'Did you have the same dream?'_

_'No - that part really happened, Ron.'_

_'Yeah... heh...'_

_'But it won't happen again if you keep calling me in the middle of the night!' and Kim's voice sounded reasonably annoyed before there was a click and a dial tone._

_Ron slumped back into his bed, his head sinking into the pillow. 'Man - love is complicated...' he said._

Ron moved his thumb away from the speed dial, his lower lip clenched between his teeth. He wanted assurance, somehow, that Kim wasn't pushing this just because she wanted to get even with Grimm. Even factoring in that Team Probable really _did_ need to be shut down for the greater good, it seemed somehow more_ selfish_ if there was the added aspect of revenge. And selfish just wasn't something Kim did.

He put the phone down on his nightstand. His first instinct was to call her, to ask her. But as much as he had wanted to prove how 'cool' he was for Kim when he'd joined the football team, he also wanted to prove that he wouldn't freak out over little things. _'But this is a BIG_ _thing!'_ he thought. _'If we wind up doing this for revenge, what will Yoda think?_' But no matter how many different versions of the question he ran through his mind, they all sounded either smothering or rude.

_'Hey KP, are you just doing this to get Grimm?'  
'Hey KP, you're not just using me are you?'  
'Hey KP, would you tell me what your real motivations are?'  
'Hey KP, Grimm said you were doing this for yourself, not for me. That true?'  
'Hey KP, you're not just playing me are you?'  
'Hey KP, how does Bueno Nacho after school sound?'_

The last one caused his mouth to water, but didn't do anything to calm the doubts in his head. He wanted to ask her about it, but every direct approach just didn't sound right. And indirect questions weren't really his _thing_.

After a few minutes of thought, he started feeling angry with himself. _'Don't let them pull their old tricks.'_ Kim had said this to him before the battle. Yet here he was, going all_ angstey_ over Grimm's head-gaming. He thought about all the times Kim had saved him, and wondered how he could ever doubt her. _'Who am I gonna believe? My bon-diggety GF, or the jerk who turned me into Zorpox?'_

But then the memory of what he'd overheard while Kim was talking to Wade on the Kimmunicator came back to him as well. She hadn't been _making fun_ of him really, any more than the good-natured jibes he and his own friends used in polite company. And she had been coming off from that frustrating defeat by Adrena Lynn. Except that she had said them when she thought he wasn't there.

He went back to sleep, his mind still swirling with questions that he didn't have the ability to answer, and that he was too afraid to ask the people he trusted most.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

_Kim felt a swell of pride as she saw Rhonda tumble through the air, thrown back by Ron's Mystical Monkey Power. She collided with Grimm and they both went sprawling across the floor._

_Rhonda lay unconscious. Grimm was struggling to his elbows, but clearly stunned by the impact. His left arm and left leg were twitching and it was clear that only will power was keeping him awake._

_'This... isn't over!' he hissed through gritted teeth. 'This can't be over...!'_

_'Deal with it dude, it is so over!' Ron said, staring down at him._

_Grimm scowled, but his eyes slid out of focus and he collapsed to the floor next to Rhonda. The MIDX news crew seemed to appear out of thin air, the white blaze from the video camera's light shining in their eyes. And Dibble's microphone was in front of Ron's face._

_'Ron Stoppable - how does it feel to be the hero who stopped this team of mercenaries?'_

_Ron was looking at his hands, an elated smile on his face. 'Rockin!' he said. 'It's like sitting in front of a plate full of Nacos with a healthy appetite.'_

_Dibble looked confused for a moment, but pressed on. 'Does this mean that you and Kim Possible will be going after other villains?'_

_Kim stepped forward to speak, but Ron was already answering. 'You bet!' he said loudly. 'Villains of the world - consider yourselves on notice!' Ron said, leaning into the camera. 'Ron Stoppable doesn't do 'buffoon' anymore!'_

_Time went by. Ron's skill and confidence grew more and more with each successful mission. More and more villains were put away, with Ron taking point in more and more missions. It was like Ron had become a superstar, his powers and success making him a media darling, with herself standing more often in the background. And then after one mission, she heard one reporter at a news conference make a jubilant exclamation._

_'Team Stoppable is unstoppable!'_

Kim awoke with a wheezing gasp. All was quiet. She was still in her room in bed and everything was dark. A glance at her alarm clock showed it was nearly 2am. She fumbled on her nightstand, using the nearby glow of the clock display to guide her until she found her cell phone. She lit up the buttons with a tap of her finger and was just about to hit Ron's speed dial when she stopped herself.

_'No...'_ she thought. This was exactly what she had promised herself she_ wouldn't_ do. _'I'm not freaking... I'm not jelling!'_ Even if Ron's Mystical Monkey Power _did_ make him more powerful, she reasoned that Ron simply wasn't the type to let it go to his head. At least not for long.

One thing she had learned in dealing with Team Probable was that nothing was as it seemed. She tried to think as they might. For all she knew, Grimm _wanted_ her to be jealous of Ron, so she would keep letting Ron's powers lie dormant, so Team Probable would always have the upper hand. And maybe taunting her about not training Ron was their way using reverse psychology to ensure she _didn't_ train him.

She held her head with her hands, trying to concentrate. _'Easy girl.'_ she thought. _'You're over-thinking this...'_ Surely Team Probable wasn't _that_ smart. Surely Grimm wasn't such a head gamer that every little thing he said was some kind of trick designed to lure her and Ron into some kind of trap. She knew Ron. She _trusted_ Ron. And come what may, she wouldn't them distract her from helping him.

Kim laid back in bed and turned her head slightly. She could dimly make out Pandaroo, a black silhouette against the paler blue darkness of the windows. 'Pandaroo...' she said softly. 'Love is _complicated_...'

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

It was after school the next day when Ron walked into one of the private practice rooms in the Middleton Martial Arts dojo. Every step came reluctantly and he was uncomfortably aware of every detail, from the smell of plastic and sweat to the firmness of the mat beneath his bare feet. The mat had just a little give to it, but not enough to make walking difficult. Practice dummies lined the walls, and one padded wall had a number of targets painted on it. All the colors on everything seemed sharp, almost harsh, under the buzzing fluorescent lights in the ceiling.

This was the dojo that Kim used when practicing her kung-fu. She didn't go there very often. Her natural aptitudes and her constant training at cheerleader practice had made coming to the dojo largely unnecessary, as the master of the dojo, Nuck Chorris, had laughingly told her. He seemed in agreement with the mathematical conclusions of Ron's father, that her skill was already at such a high level that there wasn't much they could teach her.

But she had a standing invite to use the dojo whenever she wanted, in exchange for Chorris being allowed to hang posters in the window that read "Kim Possible's dojo of choice". And Kim Possible was the dominant feature of the dojo at the moment, at least in Ron's eyes, though he avoided looking straight at her. She was dressed in her _gi_, with her black belt tied perfectly around her slim waist, her hair pulled into a pony-tail as she always did when she was anticipating any action.

She was looking expectantly at him, and he felt a sensation of awk_weirdness_ at the thought of why they were both there. It had been different when they fought at Bueno Nacho. Then, Ron had been under the control of Professor Dementor, a puppet moved by his manipulation of the battle-suit. But this was different. Now Kim wanted him to fight her _willingly_, with the intent of trying to unlock Ron's Mystical Monkey Power, a power that Ron still wasn't sure he could control.

'Hey KP...' he said, smiling faintly, trying to keep a casual air. But Kim was all business. She smiled at him, curling her fingers in a gesture of beckoning as she went into a ready stance.

'Let's start with the basics.' she said. 'Try and hit me. And _don't_ hold back.'

Rufus scurried over to the sidelines of the room. 'Hmm-hmm! _Fight_!' he squeaked, brining one arm down.

Ron felt he knees trembling as he took up his position, standing opposite to Kim and raising his own arms, looking much less enthusiastic. He looked her over, trying to determine what kind of attack might work best against the way she was holding herself at the moment.

'Any time...' she said softly.

Ron felt a chill. The chirpy tone was back in her voice, but now there was an _edge_ to it. He reflected that he much preferred fighting by her side than facing off with her. He tried a couple of quick strikes, first one one hand, then the other. But Kim dodged them with little effort, then did a quick spin and toss that sent him sliding face down across the mat.

He got up, returning to a ready position. 'That kinda _hurt_...' he said, though he wasn't sure if he was speaking fully about the physical sensation.

'Not as much as Shego would.' she said. 'Try again!'

Ron went into his monkey crouch and did his battle cry while Kim stood waiting for him. Then before he was half-way through, she seized the collar of his _gi_ and rolled, pulling him down and sending him flying with a swift kick of her legs. Ron's battle-cry turned into a shrill wailing that ended with a loud grunt as he slammed into the mat like a sack of potatoes.

'Too much Monkey, not enough _Power_.' she said, staring at him, her arms raised and ready. Ron slowly stood up and returned to face her again.

This time he was more cautious, and managed to avoid Kim's counters to his own strikes. They continued for some time, with Kim blocking his attacks and Ron barely managing to keep pace with her. He didn't get thrown again, and after one series of mutual attacks and counters, he found himself with a wide open opportunity for a right cross. His fist rushed towards her.

But she turned so he could see her eyes, her beautiful green eyes, her lips, her face... His fist slowed in mid-flight. And suddenly her head was no longer there. He felt a sharp pain in his ribs as Kim's foot connected and he flew backwards, landing with a painful _thud_ on his rear end.

Kim was glaring at him as he got up. 'I practically _gave_ you that one.' she said. 'What happened?'

Ron stood ready again, but he couldn't look her in the eye. 'I... I can't _hit_ you...' he said. 'I _like_ you too much.'

'That's sweet, Ron.' she said. 'But tonight, those rules are _off_. If you really like me, then you'll do your best to kick my butt!'

Ron struck again, but again failed to connect. 'If it helps, pretend I'm a super-villain.' Kim said. 'For tonight call me... Terriatrix the Tormentress!' she said, making a very impressive evil grin. 'You should know that I've actually set a plan in motion to destroy Bueno Nacho - unless you can stop me!'

A sudden look of panic crossed Ron's face. 'Heh heh... you're kidding, right KP?' he said, though his voice didn't sound amused at all.

'Note serious face!' she said, narrowing her eyes.

'But... Bueno Nacho is_ our_ place!' he said. 'We need it for... _eating_ and _sitting down_ and stuff!'

'Not after tonight.' Kim said, grinning. 'Terriatrix will _not_ be denied!'

Ron came at her much more aggressively, but no more skillfully. She blocked him with ease. 'You're _not_ taking away the Naco!' he said.

'Maybe I won't destroy Bueno Nacho.' she said. 'Maybe I'll just replace everything with broccoli!'

_'Nooooooo!'_

Again, she deliberately gave him a wide opening, and again he hesitated, giving her the opportunity to counter him and send him sprawling with another toss. She put a little more energy into the throw than she intended, her frustration building.

'What is _wrong_ with you?' Kim said as Ron slowly got to his feet. 'I _saw_ you when you were fighting in Go Tower. It was amazing - how come you can't do it now?'

Ron was chewing his lower lip. 'I've got... _monkey issues..._' he said.

Kim struggled to be patient. 'Get _over_ them!' she said. 'You've done it before!'

Ron seemed unable to look her in the eye. 'Kim... I'm _scared_ of the Mystical Monkey Power.' he said.

'Why?'

'Because... the only times I've ever been able to use it... I mean _really_ use it... was when I was _evil_!' He seemed to be voicing a doubt he'd long kept secret, but which Kim's pressure had finally wrung out of him. 'What if it _is_ evil? What if using it _makes_ me evil?'

'Yori said you used it to save the Yamanouchi school when Monkey Fist was after the Lotus Blade.' said Kim. 'And Sensei doesn't think you're evil.'

'But that time when Team Probable made me Zorpox again - and not long after that in Go Tower!' Ron said, looking at his hands and seeming absolutely tormented. 'I used it so _easily_ then, to... _hurt_ people. I don't _want_ to hurt people, I don't like being evil...!'

'Listen to me Ron,' said Kim, looking him dead in the eyes. 'You're _not_ evil! You _can_ do this! To stop Team Probable, it may be our best option - our only option.'

'But even if I _do_ tap into it somehow, I don't know if I can _control_ it!' he said helplessly. 'I'm not even sure how powerful it is! What if I hurt someone... what if I hurt _you_?'

I'll _risk_ it!' said Kim, getting more frustrated. 'And in case you hadn't noticed, you haven't laid a finger on me yet.'

Ron looked ashamed and embarrassed. 'I don't _want_ to take that risk...' he said, looking at the floor. 'Your dad, and deep space probes aside, if something happened, and I was responsible, I'd never be able to live with myself. And I can't afford a separate apartment...'

'Are you saying you don't have faith in Sensei?' Kim snapped. 'That you don't have faith in_ me_?'

Ron looked devastated. 'What? No, Kim that's not what I...'

Kim stood right in front of him, glaring angrily. 'I can only _carry_ you so far.' she said. 'At some point you've got to start carrying_ yourself_. The sitch is _serious_, Ron. Team Probable is on the loose. They've been training together, they're stronger now. We need to get stronger too! You keep saying you want to step up, but you keep stepping _back_!'

The color blanched from Ron's face, throwing his freckles into even sharper relief against his skin. 'Kim...' he said, and his voice sounded feeble, and pleading.

'I'm going out for some air.' Kim said, suddenly walking past him and moving to the doorway of the practice room. 'And when I come back, we can talk about whether you're _serious_ about being a team player.' Ron held out his hand after her, but did not move from where he stood on the mat. Rufus looked out after her too, his face matching Ron's expression of fear and discomfort.

Ron stood alone in the practice room for several minutes after Kim had left with Rufus staying on the sideline. He stared at the practice dummies, and the target marks on the wall. '_I is what I is._' he thought. _'So... what am I? A member of Team Possible? The buffoon who messes up as often as he comes through? Am I someone Kim only puts up with because we've been friends since pre-K? Or am I someone she can depend on when things get tough? She's helped me out more times than I can count and she's never asked for a thing. Well, she's asking now... can I just ignore that because I'm scared? What am I?'_

And he knew the answer. If it came down to a question of loyalties, then he knew. No matter how unsure he was, no matter how much it cost him, no matter how tough things got - he was Kim's best friend. And he stood by her all the way.

He resumed practice on his high kicks, even though no one was there to watch or supervise him. He tried to remember everything he'd been taught at Yamanouchi, wishing he'd paid more attention...

Kim stood in the shadowed alcove that led into the training room, peering around the corner as Ron returned to his practice. She sighed inwardly as she heard the regular _thump_ of Ron's foot, striking against the target on the wall. _'I'm sorry I had to be like that, Ron.'_ she thought to herself. _'I know its harsh. But if it helps you to take your game to the next level, it'll be worth it - for both of us.'_

Even though her ploy seemed to have spurred Ron the way she hoped, she felt awful. _'If you get to the right place by doing the wrong thing, is it worth it?'_ She frowned as she recalled her own words. _'We haven't even found Grimm yet and he's already got me crossing lines.'_ And here she was, trying to push Ron into using his Monkey Power by_ threatening_ his place on the team when she knew perfectly well she would never send him away.

She sighed and made her way to the dojo's vending machine, though she was sure the empty feeling inside her had nothing to do with hunger.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Grimm was exchanging books in his locker at school, getting ready to go home for the day. The computer monitor he had mounted inside the locker blipped on and Jade's face was smiling out at him, the rainbow streaks in her hair seemed garishly bright against her dark hair on the screen.

'Good news GP.' she said. 'The Overthruster is clean and I just got coordinates for the drop off. The client wants it tonight - if you and Rhonda can take time out from your hand-holding...' She ended with an impish curl in her lips.

'Wireless the info to my communicator and we're there.' he said. 'But knock it off with the 'love makes me sick' routine, will you? Someday you might not mind it so much.'

'As _if_.' Jade said.

'Maybe if you were smart enough to make some kind of 'cupid ray', you could analyze romance and reach a more informed conclusion.' he said, closing his book bag and smirking.

Jade glared at him. 'Well then maybe that's what I'll _do_, smart guy!' she said, and the screen went black.

Rhonda skidded around the corner at that moment, her face looking panicked. 'GP, we gotta move - Ms. Darken is on the warpath again!'

Grimm rolled his eyes. 'What set her off _this_ time? Did the wind change direction or something?'

Rhonda glanced out of a window at a windsock mounted near the school flagpole. 'Actually yeah, but that's not the only reason. I was in the schoolyard for my afternoon 'keep in touch with nature' meditation, and I was near the eaves by her office...'

Grimm moaned and covered his eyes with his hand. 'You sent the chipmunks into her office _again_?' he said.

'I didn't _send_ them!' she said, fidgeting where she stood. 'They pick up on things that I think would be funny and... well just because I can_ communicate_ with them doesn't mean I can _control_ them!'

And from a distance down the hallway, a throaty, echoing female voice was letting out a bellowing shout. _'Fatigable!!!!'_

Grimm closed his locker with a clang. 'That's a few decibels louder than her previous record.' he said. 'Yeah, we'd better move. We've got an appointment later tonight anyway...'

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Kim had returned to the dojo a little later to continue practice. Neither of them spoke much this time, so the atmosphere was more tense. But the practice itself went much better. Ron definitely seemed more energized, and he even managed a few tosses against her that she didn't need to fake or stage for him.

Tai Shing Pek Kwar was one of the styles she had trouble fighting against. It involved a lot of weaving and sidling which was much different from the solid stances and stable positioning that most of her other styles required.

The center of balance had to be a lot more flexible while doing Monkey Kung Fu and the body hardly ever came to a full stop. Kim reflected that her cheerleader practice should have made her a natural for Tai Shing Pek Kwar, because cheerleaders hardly ever stayed still either. But it simply hadn't worked out that way. Her cheerleader moves, like the other styles of Kung Fu which came more naturally to her, also involved solid positioning and a steady center of balance.

Which was, she thought, probably the reason why Monkey Fist was one of the few villains besides Shego who gave her so much trouble in hand to hand combat. And also why she found fighting Grimm so frustrating. They were both masters of Tai Shing Pek Kwar, and so they were peculiarly fitted to take advantage of Kim's weaknesses.

And as the practice continued, Kim began to feel the same sense of frustration in fighting Ron as she often did when fighting Monkey Fist or Grimm. Maybe it really was simply a matter of getting Ron working on something, or prodding him into getting started. But like with his homework, or his running away skills or his cooking, once he started something and kept at it for a while, he seemed to slip into a natural _groove_. And once he was in that groove, he got really _good_ at whatever it was he was doing.

And so she found herself actively _trying _to hit him as practice went on, but having more and more trouble doing so. And even though she was no longer offering him any openings, he snaked in with several taps and jabs as he stepped and circled like a monkey in front of her. He was still holding back, stopping short of putting any real force behind his strikes.

But Kim wasn't about to complain and ask him to hit _harder_ now that he was doing so much better. She still felt guilty about what she had said before and wasn't disposed to lecture him for not clobbering her.

'Okay... take five!' Kim said, doing the 'time out' sign. They had been going at it for over two hours, and Ron was looking more relaxed as he continued. He was sweaty and his hair was plastered to his head like a skullcap, but he looked like he was actually having fun as he continued going through motions and routines even as Kim stepped away.

'But I don't feel tired...' he said. 'I'm actually feelin' loosey-goosey...' He posed on one foot, his hands held out in front of him, then shifted to a crouch, keeping his arms and hands in the same position, then pranced about in a small circle. 'Wauuuuu...!' he squealed, facing off against each target dummy as he kept moving across the mat.

Kim couldn't help smiling. 'I'm going to the soda fountain for a Crocade.' she said. 'You want anything?'

'Wauuuuu!' Ron said, doing the crane stance in front of another dummy. 'Waaaaauuuuu! Maybe a glass of _waaaaaaauuuuuuu_ter! _Waaaaaauuuuuuu!!!'_

Kim rolled her eyes and was walking back towards the door leading back into the hallway when she heard Ron making his wailing battle cry.

'_Waauuuughhhh-sha-sha-sha-sha-sha!!!!'_

But Kim saw the lights dim, except for a brilliant blue that flared suddenly behind her, casting her own shadow on the wall of the dojo. There was a sound like an explosive burst and she heard a loud clattering of something wooden, then a crash against the side wall.

She whirled around and saw Ron standing in the middle of the matted floor. Both his arms were still held out, one above the other, with his wrists held together and his hands held open as if to catch something. But his face was wide with surprise and shock as he stared in front of him. Kim followed his eyes and saw one of the practice dummies lying on the floor, broken into splinters. There was a large depression in the wall where the dummy had struck. Faintly, as if from some great distance, she thought she heard something like the shrill cry of a monkey, but it faded to silence before she could be sure of it.

'Ron?' she said, walking back to him. 'Was that _you_?'

Ron looked around suddenly, as if trying to see if someone else was practicing next to him. 'Ah... uh... I _think_ so.' he said, his posture relaxing into a nervous shrug.

Kim smiled. 'Ron, you see? All you ever need is to believe in yourself. _You can do it_!'

'It... still kinda comes and goes...' Ron said, staring at his hands again.

Kim stood in front of him. 'It comes when you _call_.' she said. 'You're stronger than you think, Ron. You're stronger than _Grimm_ thinks. They're going to be sorry they ever tried to mess with you.'

Ron looked past her to the shattered dummy. 'I'm just glad you weren't standing there.' he said. 'And I have to say... it's a lot easier to believe in yourself when you have someone special who believes in you too.'

Kim smiled. 'I think I'll keep you around...' she said warmly.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

'This is A. U. Dibble, MIDX news.' Dibble spoke, his voice charged with it's usual enthusiasm. 'Reporting the final segment in our series about Kim Possible, teenage crime fighter.'

It was late evening. Kim had come home with Ron and Rufus in tow to tend to their homework and also to relax after the days' training. Kim had set up a schedule for them to return to the dojo every day that week. She had also checked in with Wade. Like Kim herself, Wade seemed in much better spirits after a nights' sleep and a days' recovery. But he'd found no news of Team Probable. There had been no thefts that day either.

Kim and Ron had left the kitchen to find her mother and father sitting in the living room couch and looking at the television with expressions that were both surprised and offended. And they saw they were watching MIDX news, viewing the opening of Dibble's next report.

Mr. Dr. Possible turned to her. 'Kimmy-cub, were you aware of what this... _huckster_ was doing?'

Kim sighed. She had forgotten to tell her parents about Dibble's 'series', and warn them that unlike most reports that covered her crime fighting work, MIDX was running with a negative slant. 'Yeah.' she said sullenly. 'If you insist on watching I should warn you to prepare for gorchiness.'

Their attention turned back to the TV, where Dibble was still speaking. 'In our previous segments, we've gone over some of the collateral effects of her activities. Destruction of property, misleading the public, setting the lives of bystanders at risk while fighting criminals in areas where innocent people have little or no protection. In this segment, we touch on the ethical ramifications of Kim Possible's very existence as a crime fighter.'

The scene shifted to a medley of scenes from Middleton High. Students were shown walking through the halls, at football practice, having lunch in the cafeteria and other such things. 'There are several hundred students attending Middleton High School.' said Dibble's voice-over. 'And as most parents, superintendents and teachers will attest, there is a network of laws and regulations in place to protect them from abuse, exploitation and other forms of harm.'

The scene then showed Kim snowboarding down a mountainside, some footage of her battling Shego, and one of Drakken's lairs exploding in a raging fireball. 'Why then, do _all_ of these laws seem to get thrown out the window in the case of one Kimberly Ann Possible?'

The screen continued to show various news footage of Kim's past missions. There was security footage of the Nakatomi toy factory incident with Kim fighting the assembly line after it had made its transformation into a mechanical monster. There was footage of Kim in her skydiving duel with Senor Senior Senior, and camcorder footage of the battle with Dementor and his henchmen in the streets of Middleton. 'In a number of instances, this girl, still an underage _minor_, has gone, or been sent into veritable war zones, braving laser cannons, giant robots and trained outlaws. We consulted child services and asked them if this behavior should be tolerated, even with her personal consent.'

The camera then showed a middle-aged woman seated behind a desk in a gray business jacket and blouse. The caption read "_Bjeria Cratt - Child Social Services"_ 'I find it gravely disturbing, both as a civil servant and as a mother, that this girl is allowed to conduct such activities and her parents are seemingly in _agreement_ with it. What kind of mother would allow her child to face such dangerous criminals and such perilous situations and do nothing to protect her? A _responsible_ parent would not allow an underage child to get married or make major financial decisions. By the same token, Kimberly Ann Possible is too young and inexperienced to realize the danger she is exposing herself, and _others_ to, in her life as a vigilante.'

The camera cut to another scene, showing a bespectacled man with thinning hair and an aura of intellectual smugness. The caption read "_Dr. Cyrus K. Atrix - Child Therapist_" Dibble appeared to be interviewing him, though the audio was muffled by Dibble's own voice-over. 'We also consulted with Dr. Atrix, a noted juvenile therapist and psychiatrist with over twenty years of experience in dealing with troubled youth and dysfunctional families.' Then Dibble's voice faded and Dr. Atrix could be heard clearly.

'I believe that Kimberly Ann Possible suffers from several developmental disorders.' he said, his voice had a fruity sound to it, with a clipped German accent. 'It is not uncommon among today's youth. They have a great deal of leisure time, and highly active imaginations. They desperately want to feel important and needed. Many are, in the main, either ignored, or too heavily indulged by their parents. Both parents often have careers of their own, and therefore the children do not receive the boundaries and structure they need for healthy development. These children develop a sense of invulnerability, thinking that because of their youth they can never be harmed. And I would classify Kim Possible as their standard-bearer.'

Dibble leaned forward in his chair, gesturing towards Dr. Atrix. 'But there are many people who say that Kim Possible's actions have saved lives, and prevented dangerous criminals from launching schemes that would harm thousands. Isn't that worthwhile?'

Dr. Atrix shook his head patronizingly. 'Kim Possible's exploits could be said to have some benefits to the community.' he said, his voice laced with disbelief. 'But I would call such conclusions _questionable_ at best. First of all, these people are presuming that only _one_ underage girl has the power to stop these criminals. And by making Ms. Possible believe that these people are _dependent_ on her for protection, they are doing great harm to her psychologically. She would be much better served if her parents discouraged her reckless behavior, and instructed her to notify trained authorities if she encounters any wrongdoers. Instead she takes it on herself to act in place of the authorities, and I am sorry to say, there is evidence that even some international organizations are _encouraging _this. It makes the situation extremely dire for Ms. Possible. Not only does she _herself_ believe she is justified in her vigilante exploits, but she is being_ driven_ to continue by her indulgent parents, and by black organizations that may have hidden, even_ sinister_ political agendas. And if Ms. Possible should be injured, or _killed_ on one of her 'missions', then who will hold these people to account for their role in the inevitable tragedy?'

The scene cut back to Cratt, still seated behind her own desk. 'I tried to contact Kim Possible's parents to discuss these issues. Her father, Dr. Possible, is a noted scientist at the Middleton Space Center. Her mother, also a doctor, is an accomplished neurosurgeon. Both of these are extremely time-intensive careers and I can't help doubting whether the parents are actively engaged in guiding their daughter through her critical years of juvenile development. They may think they're helping her by letting her 'make her own decisions' as it were, but at what point will those with clearer vision be allowed to step in and say that she may be making the _wrong_ decisions?'

'And were you able to contact the parents?' said Dibble.

'I did manage a brief phone conversation with the father.' said Cratt. 'When I expressed my concern, he said "Oh, you know how kids are these days. Besides, anything is Possible for a Possible."

'How did they react to your proposal that Child Services be allowed to counsel Kim Possible, or oversee her activities?' said Dibble.

Cratt shook her head sadly. 'The parents didn't agree. And our office received word from higher up that we would not be allowed to pursue the matter. I was outraged of course, but when I tried to make further inquiries, I was informed that I was interfering in matters of 'global security' and I should let it drop.'

The scene cut back to the MIDX studio, with Dibble facing the camera. 'Anything is possible for a Possible.' he said. 'Pretty words. But when the _possibility_ of injury or death is raised, her parents don't seem concerned. Is it right for parents to allow their underage child to go after mad scientists and super-villains? To date, Kim Possible has _not_ been seriously injured on any of her missions. The Possible family has been lucky so far, and avoided tragedy. Kim Possible has her parents, political organizations and legions of supporters who want her to stay the course. How long will her luck hold? Whatever her next mission may be, we can only hope that when it is reported, it will not include an obituary. A. U. Dibble, MIDX news.'

Mrs. Dr. Possible looked at the screen, shaking her head. 'Oh _dear_.' she said. 'That didn't make us look good at all.'

Mr. Dr. Possible picked up the remote and hit the 'power' button with a lot more force than was needed. The TV blipped off. 'To even _suggest_ that we don't care about our daughter... Well that just frosts my Kelvinator! I've got half a mind to call that Dibble right now and give him what for...'

Ron piped up, squealing loudly. 'Don't do it, Dr. P! If you let Dibble know he got to you, it'd be like an early Christmas present for him!'

'Ron's right.' said Kim gloomily. 'As much as I'd like to go point by point to answer him, it would just be throwing fuel on the fire. He'd start another set of reports if we said we wanted to respond.' She sighed. 'He said this was his last segment. It'll settle down after this.'

Mrs. Dr. Possible still looked shaken. 'I don't know. Since you started saving the world... we've never gotten _bad_ press before. You have so many people thanking you all the time for saving them. No one's ever complained or accused us of neglecting you. Is he _right_? Did we let all the kudos and praise blind us into letting you put yourself in danger?'

'Don't believe it for one minute!' Kim said, throwing her arms around both of them. 'You're the best parents in the world! You've always been there, and you did a _great_ job raising me! You've always made sure one of you was home for us, to look after us and take care of us. You even took time to make us do homework and chores...'

'Though I'm not so sure I agreed with _that..._' said Ron, but Kim spoke over him.

'That news guy doesn't know _anything, _Mom.' Kim said firmly. 'He wasn't there on a speeding train with me when I was fighting Drakken - you were. And when the Diablos were tearing through our house, he wasn't there in the garage building rocket engines so we could get to the emitters and shut them down!'

Mr. Dr. Possible had his hand on his wife's shoulder as she sat on the couch, looking down at the floor. 'But would they have even come after us if it weren't for the crime fighting?' she said. 'Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea for you to just... _talk_ with someone about your work...'

Kim shook her head. 'And what would they say?' she said. 'Play it safe? Stay home and leave it to someone else? When monsters and maniacs are going after people, the bad guys don't sit still and wait for the hero to get_ permission_ to act. If Dibble and those pencil pushers had their way, I would never have done anything to stop Drakken, or Dementor, or anyone else. And _then_ where would they be?'

'_That's_ the can-do Possible sprit!' said Mr. Dr. Possible. 'If Dibble thinks the family that isn't intimidated by super-villains will kow-tow to a snarky reporter, then he doesn't know the Possibles!'

Still, as the day drew to a close, Kim had to admit to herself that Dibble's reports grated on her. He never came out and said anything blatant. It was all veiled jabs and insinuation, and she wondered briefly if Dibble and Bonnie were related...

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Rhonda held onto Grimm as the _Ksikkikini _sped through the night air, with a purple-black layer of clouds above them, and a patchwork of city lights far beneath. 'Not so tight!' Grimm's voice sounded slightly muffled through her helmet. Rhonda tried to relax her grip, but it was hard. With the vast, empty air howling around them and the immensity of the sky surrounding her, the bike's safety belts felt like little more than flimsy loops of string. Grimm was checking the sensors for any nearby craft or obstacles, and also talking to Jade on the dashboard communicator.

'Drop off coordinates are locked in.' Jade's tinny voice said. 'And I'm not detecting any satellite scans or ground radar tracking you. You're good to go.'

'Spankin.' said Grimm. 'We'll keep the line open for when we need the payment verified.' There was a blip, and then Rhonda had to fight back a squeal of fear as she felt the bike diving. They landed silently in the park section of the city and converted to regular ground travel, navigating the dark city streets until they reached what looked like the entrance to a business district. They parked, locked the bike and continued on foot, with Grimm holding a metal case in one hand.

'We OK leaving the bike alone?' Rhonda said. 'It'd ruin our street cred if our ride got boosted...'

'I hope someone tries.' said Grimm with a mischievous smile. 'Jade's got all kinds of ADM's installed, including the always-hilarious high voltage touch sensors. It'd be a hoot to watch on the bike's camcorder...' They walked through the high ornamental iron gate and into a wide alley with various business buildings, all closed and dark.

'You all rested up after your donnybrook with Kim?' he asked, his voice lower, as if wanting to carry on the conversation, but not so loudly that they couldn't overhear anyone approaching.

'Oh yeah,' said Rhonda. 'No sweat.'

'And during the fight - did you tell her what I suggested?'

'Yeah. She didn't say much though...' Rhonda answered, shrugging her shoulders.

Grimm smiled. 'But the seeds are planted.' he said. 'Maybe nothing will come of it, but we've probably given them both a couple of sleepless nights while they wonder.'

It was nearly midnight, but a bright moon broke through the clouds above, making the sky pale instead of dark. Grimm and Rhonda entered a plaza with a river-walk. On either side of a thin canal full of softly flowing water, various stores and buildings formed a high man-made valley. Everything was deserted and their footsteps pattered softly as they made their way to one of the decorative bridges which spanned the waterway. They said nothing, and were both aguard, looking around suspiciously until they heard a voice across the bridge.

'Right there will do my friends,' came a smooth, erudite voice that echoed slightly from across the way. It was loud enough to be heard, and still muffled enough that they couldn't tell who was speaking. 'Do you have the item?'

Grimm squinted, but was unable to make out anything but a man-sized shape in the shadows on the other side of the bridge. He held up the case containing the Overthruster. 'As promised,' he said, opening the case slightly to reveal the contents. 'One Oscillation Overthruster. We've screened it for tracking devices and other bugs. It's clean and ready to go.'

'Well done!' came the voice. 'Put the case on the center of the bridge.'

Grimm smirked. 'You wouldn't expect us to do that without a show of good faith.' he said.

A soft laugh floated across the waterway. 'I suppose not.' came the voice. '_Catch_.'

A black shape flew across the bridge, landing at Grimm's feet with a muffled _thud_. He gestured to Rhonda, who lifted it up and saw it was a tied paper sack containing bundles of cash. She flipped through several of the bundles and nodded to Grimm. Grimm crossed half-way over the bridge and laid the case down.

'_Slide_ it.' Came the voice. 'And do not approach any further. I feel it best that we know as little about each other as... _possible_.'

Grimm nodded and pushed the case hard. It slid roughly across the rest of the bridge, where it was quickly snatched by a large hand before vanishing into the shade.

'And if you have found this job and my methods agreeable, I have other tasks that need doing,' said the voice, 'Assuming of course that you are up to the challenge.' And with that, another bundle of cash flew through the air and landed at Grimm's feet.

Grimm smiled and picked up the money. 'I think we can arrange something.' he said. 'Play it straight with us, and we'll come through for you. You know how to contact us. We'll be waiting.' Then he turned and crossed the bridge, taking out his communicator. Once he was all the way across, he threw the extra bundle into the sack Rhonda was carrying. 'Standard OP's Jade.' he said softly. 'Sweep the cash for counterfeits and bugs. If it's good, we're gone.'

The scanning beam from his communicator swept over the money, and after a moment, Jade popped onto the screen. 'Oh, love me legal tender, love me_ true_!' she said. 'Come on home guys, it's clean!' Grimm nodded towards the darkness across the bridge, then he and Rhonda turned and left the plaza.

It was several minutes later when the nearly silent _Ksikkikini _was seen rising up above the tops of the buildings, and then zooming off into the distance. Once they were gone the figure in the shadows was joined by a man who emerged from the darkness as if the shadows were a blanket he had just removed.

The man was tall and almost skeletally thin, dressed in the garb of an Indian medicine man, with two eagle feathers tied behind his left ear. Maze stood staring at the other figure, who had the case containing the Overthruster clutched in his hand. 'You are sure that obtaining these items will help in fulfilling my plans?' Maze said quietly.

'Oh my, yes.' said Monkey Fist, stepping forward to join him. He was dressed in a black _gi_, marking him as a ninja. He also was thin, with abnormally long fingers and the toes on his bare feet were grossly elongated with what appeared to be opposable big toes. Monkey Fist strode out of the shadows, still looking down at the prize he held. 'Trust me - though the original scope of your plan was impressive, once we have the components and the personnel, it will expand a thousand fold!'

Maze's eyes narrowed slightly. 'I care nothing for the rest of the world.' he said darkly. 'It is my people I wish to rule over.'

Monkey Fist laughed. 'If things work out - as I am sure they will - then the entire _continent_ will be yours to do with as you wish! So long as you leave the rest of the world to _me_.'

Maze continued to stare. 'You speak as one with great ambitions, _Maokiiwa_.' he said. 'But remember - if you think to betray me, that it is only through my power that you even able to move. I can easily render your body as motionless as it was before.'

Monkey Fist sounded both annoyed and bored. 'Yes, yes, I'm well aware.' he said, flexing the fingers on his left hand. Beneath his black clothing, his skin, his hands, feet and face, even his hair, looked rough and gray. He was still made of stone. 'Just remember - if you think to betray _me_, that it is only my resources and connections that are allowing your plan to proceed.'

Maze nodded. 'I am glad that we understand each other, _Maokiiwa_.' he said, and he glanced with slitted eyes at the sky where Grimm and Rhonda had left. 'Though I dislike relying on _Katasistsikoowa_ and _Otaatoyiwa_ in this manner. They were responsible for my defeat, and the sooner we have them collect the rest of the items, the better. He is cunning, and the longer we rely on them, the greater the risk. It is essential that they do _not_ know I am involved - until the moment we strike.'

'Yes,' said Monkey Fist, sighing. 'I am almost sorry - they are a competent team of mercenaries. For the moment though, they can serve as our useful idiots. And if you do what I want - then I will do what _you_ want. We both have enemies we wish to vanquish, and powers we believe we alone should wield...'

_Coming Soon:  
Chapter 6_

_A cat burglar once gave Bart Simpson a book on how to cope with this..._

**Vote Team Probable 'Best Villains' in the Golden Fannie awards - coming soon: )**


	7. Ch 6: Loss

A Friend In Darkness  
All Things Probable 3

A Kim Possible Fanfiction  
by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and its affiliates, etc. etc.

Chapter 6  
Loss  
_Or: Who Moved My Teams?_

Rhonda stood with her arms hanging limp, gasping for breath. As she had guessed, Grimm had insisted on going back to the training yard the very next day after picking up their payment from the last job.

She reflected for a moment about how much she hated the training yard. It was a vast network of obstacle courses, compartmentalized with gates and high fences, meant to simulate various combat situations and scenarios. Even though it was in a large, wooded area a distance behind Grimm's house, various neighborhood kids who took to exploring the woods kept mistaking it for some kind of playground. So in addition to the high fences, Jade had been obliged to put defense networks in place to make sure no one stumbled into it.

And today Rhonda felt as if she'd gone through each area of the training yard a dozen times. Even with the power of the Great Bear Spirit, she always felt drained and exhausted at the end of each session. But she endured it, for one simple reason - Grimm was there. She didn't think it was fair. Even after hard workouts and training sessions, she thought Grimm looked even cuter in his disheveled state, while feeling that she simply looked sweaty and gross.

At last, he signed that it was time to take five. She slumped down to a sitting position, and vaguely heard Grimm's communicator beeping. Through the haze of her fatigue, she saw Grimm fish the communicator from his gym bag and activate it with a shrill beep that pierced the otherwise still air in the training yard.

Jade's face blipped onto the screen. 'Yo GP, what up?' she said, a smile on her lips.

Grimm smiled as well. 'I get the feeling you're about to tell me what's up.' he said.

'Can't pull one over on you.' said Jade, spinning around in her computer chair. 'You know that client who paid us so much and said they might need us again?'

'Yeah.' said Grimm.

'They're_ baaaaaaaaaaaaaack_...' she sang mischievously.

'Sitch me.' he said, and his eyes went into sharp focus.

'Comparable job, comparable fee.' Jade said. 'Another snatch-and-grab operation. They say they want a device called the Waveform Harmonicizer, made by the Baxter Science corporation.'

Grimm raised an eyebrow. 'More technical components? Sounds like they're building something.'

Jade was well acquainted with his non-verbal cues. 'You want me to try and deduce what they're working on?' she said.

Grimm paused for a moment, thinking. 'Yeah. It couldn't hurt to know their end goal - for security reasons.'

'Gotcha.' Jade said. 'In the meantime, they said they'd like the item within a week.'

Grimm nodded. 'Then that gives us some time to plan out the operation. Get us any info you can on the Baxter Building and its security, and info on the Waveform Harmonicizer so we know what we're looking for.'

'I'm all over it!' said Jade.

'Thanks in advance.' Grimm answered, then with another beep, Jade was gone.

Rhonda was still sitting a few feet away, and looking woozy. But she spoke evenly as he walked back over towards her. 'Another job? Same guys?' she said, and Grimm nodded. 'Well... whaddaya mean 'plan the operation'? What's to plan? We find out where the thingy is, and I open a big ol' can of Bear Power on the place...'

Grimm shook his head slightly. 'Only if we _need_ to.' he said. 'Part of controlling any power is learning how to decide when it's necessary to use it. We approach this job the way we have all our other jobs. What's our motto again?'

Rhonda sighed. Sometimes Grimm was just too _ninja_, but she answered dutifully. '_Move fast, move silently and leave no trace that you were ever there_.' she said. 'But come on, that's not what we did in Go City and at Yoyodyne!'

'Those were _exceptions_.' Grimm said, sitting down next to her. 'Go City was a real life field test. And in the end, I think the field test proved more important that getting the emerald. On a real mission, things don't always shake out the way you expect. As for Yoyodyne...' Grimm paused, a look of fond recollection stealing across his face, '... that wasn't_ planned_. I knew we'd meet Team Possible again, I just didn't know where or when. They predicted we'd be there, but they didn't predict _you_. We didn't exactly leave without a trace, but they still can't pin anything on us.'

Rhonda looked confused. 'But what about _now_?' she said. 'Didn't we prove that we can handle Team Possible? There's no need to _hide_ from them anymore...'

'We're not _hiding_.' said Grimm, smiling. 'But just because we proved that we can clean their clocks, it's no reason to rush out and face them all _fair and square_. No, if Kim wants another rematch, she's gonna have to _work_ for it. And part of that means she's gonna have to prove she's smart enough to track us down. If she can't...' Grimm's smile curled more wickedly, '...well, she'll always have that drubbing to remember us by.'

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Kim had spent several days after their defeat at Yoyodyne splitting her time between training with Ron and constantly checking in with Wade. There were no high profile thefts that he could find, though there were a number of smaller disturbances. Various equipment had gone missing from several famous labs, but most of it was slightly older equipment, rather than the newer cutting-edge projects. Some of them were thefts by other villains.

Motor Ed made off with several experimental engines from TurbineTech Labs, but he'd installed them on his bike and totaled it a block away. Shego had been seen stealing components from Applied Sonics Inc, and had escaped before Kim was able to get there. And there were several other thefts in which the perpetrators had simply not been spotted and gotten away clean. Kim was hesitant to blame _all_ the unknown thefts on Team Probable, but she couldn't help wondering.

She shut her locker with a clang, looking down the hallway that led to the gym and to her next cheer practice. She let out a sigh and steeled herself for whatever fresh horrors Bonnie had in store from the wellspring of snarkiness that fueled her attitude.

'Hey, KP!' Kim turned at the sound of Ron's voice. He was also heading towards the hallway that led to the gym, a duffel bag under his arm. 'Looks like we're both heading the same way - gives us a chance to see how many PDA's we can sneak in before Barkin sees us.'

'And that would be _zero_, Stoppable!' said Barkin, looming behind Ron as if he'd appeared there by magic. Ron yelped, cringing and holding up his duffel as if to ward off a blow.

'Mr. Barkin!' he squealed, then laughed feebly. 'Ahhh... I was just... testing... to see how alert you were at enforcing your own rules. Well done! You have proved that you're worthy to monitor these halls!'

Kim rolled her eyes, and Barkin growled, staring at Ron as if he had lost his mind. 'Like I need _your_ approval, Stoppable.' he said, his voice low and dangerous. 'All I need to do to stay on top of trouble-makers is to shadow the biggest trouble-maker of them all - and that's both of _you_.'

Kim put up a look of indignation, wondering what _she_ had done to be included in Barkin's latest rant.

'What's my rule on PDA's in this school?' he said, crossing his arms imperiously.

'_No one wants to see it, especially you.'_ they both repeated tonelessly.

'Exactly right.' he said. 'Now - unless I'm mistaken, you _both_ have someplace to be. Possible - girls' locker room! Stoppable - boys' locker room! _Double time!!_'

They both turned and marched down the hall. 'Don't worry, PDA's are only delayed.' Kim whispered. 'They don't care about it at the dojo.'

Ron winced, remembering their after-school training sessions which were still ongoing. They split up as they entered the gym, heading towards their respective locker rooms, when Kim heard a _beep_ on her wrist Kimmunicator. 'What's the sitch?' she said briskly.

'Another robbery.' Wade answered. 'The perps weren't spotted, but I'm pretty sure it was Team Probable. The equipment stolen was called the CMC Transmat. It's used to boost and increase the power of broadcast signals, both digital and analog. But in terms of rarity, there are several labs that have that kind of equipment.'

Kim fumed silently, wishing they had a better inside track on where Team Probable would strike next. 'If it's them, then their last few thefts have been centered around communications equipment. If you can guess what it's all for, maybe you can guess what they'll need next.'

Wade shrugged slightly. 'Well, they could be combined to make some kind of jammer. But they're too small to work on a big scale. And they could just be individual jobs for different clients. Separately, any one of those items would fetch a good price on the black market...'

Kim nodded. 'Stay on it Wade.' she said. 'We have to find them. I've got a bad feeling that things are just warming up.'

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Grimm and Rhonda entered Grimm's room. Grimm had a large case under his arm and was looking buoyant. Rhonda looked a bit sulky as he put it down.

'Not sure why you're so happy.' she said. 'Those last couple of missions were _boring._ I mean, nothing happened at all! It was like they left the whatzit and the thing-a-ma-bob out on the doorstep with the milk for us to just swing by and pick up!'

'I know, it was _great_!' said Grimm. 'Those are the most exciting jobs, the ones that go so smooth it feels like you didn't do anything.'

Rhonda tried to grasp the concept, but gave up. She looked at Rueful, who shrugged his furry shoulders and curled around her neck. The computer on Grimm's desk beeped, the monitor going out of power saver mode to reveal Jade's face.

'Kaching, kaching!' she said, glancing at the case under Grimm's arm. 'Looks like another win for the team. Come by later and I'll prep the CMC for delivery to the client.'

'How much more stuff do they want?' said Grimm. 'Not that I'm complaining about the pay, but we do have _other_ clients and we've kind of put them on the back-burner for this one.'

Jade shrugged. 'I'm not sure.' she said. 'I still haven't been able to get a trace on them, and the stuff we've already given them is making it even harder. I'm pretty sure they're already using some of the components we gave them to put a dome of silence around wherever they're hiding, and as time goes by they're sure to expand it.'

Grimm frowned a bit. 'I don't like being kept in the dark.' he said. 'But so far they've played a fair game. Have they lined up another job?'

Jade shook her head. 'All they said was the usual thing. _Stand by_.'

Grimm sighed. 'Then... stand by.' he said. And Jade's face disappeared from the screen.

Grimm turned and saw Rhonda idly stroking Rueful's head while he lay relaxed across her shoulders. Rueful looked perfectly content, but Rhonda was staring at the floor and looking glum. 'What?' he said, cocking one eyebrow.

Rhonda looked up slowly. 'I don't know...' she said. 'Just a feeling. None of our other clients ever bothered _hiding_ from us. I'm getting a bad vibe. Let's just skip on any more jobs from this guy and keep him on the hook until we learn more about him.'

Grimm looked at her evenly. After their experience at Kwitcherbeliakin, he'd grown to have more respect for her instincts. It wasn't just female intuition or hunches - he knew that her instincts were guided in some way by the power of the Great Bear Spirit. 'All right - we do _one_ more job for them and let it go for a while. I guess it wouldn't be good for business to focus on just one anonymous client, no matter how good they're paying.'

Rhonda smiled faintly. 'Thanks, Grimm.' she said.

Grimm blinked. 'For_ what_?' he said.

Rhonda blushed. 'For just... _listening_.' she said. 'You've helped me become stronger, even though I whined and moaned about it. And you've never complained about the time you could have been spending on other stuff. You're... my best friend.'

Grimm's cheeks flushed in turn, but he looked like he was fighting it back. 'Don't get all_ schmaltzy_ on me.' he muttered, looking down as if embarrassed. And suddenly to him the room seemed uncomfortably quiet. 'I mean it's... it's not like I'm not getting anything out of the time I spend with you. You're not just a sidekick anymore, you're a partner. And building you up makes the team more profitable.'

Rhonda looked up. 'Is that the only reason?' she said. And despite his efforts, Rhonda definitely saw his face going redder.

'Of course not.' he said, and his voice was even quieter. 'It... never _feels_ like work when we train or go out on missions because... I _like_ being with you.'

Rhonda felt herself going moon-eyed. 'That's the _sweetest_ thing I've ever heard...' she said.

Grimm shuffled where he stood, looking surprised at himself. 'Hey... _schmaltzyness_ - what did I just _say_?' he said. Then he cleared his throat and lifted the case again. 'Come on, we'd... better get this thing over to Jade.' And as Rhonda followed him out of the room, she was somewhat gratified to see that the edges of his ears were still bright red.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

There were several mountainous ranges across England. Most were desolate and uninhabited. But in one particular range there was activity. In a vast cavern that delved deep into the living rock of one mountainside, two men were standing. One was tall, wearing a brown cloak. The other was dressed as a ninja, though the outfit was more intricate and stylized.

Maze drew his cloak around him. He was still unaccustomed to the damper climate of England. 'Not that I disapprove of being closer to nature.' he said, looking around the vast underground cavern. 'But your manor would seem the more obvious choice as the place to coordinate our activities...'

'Precisely.' said Monkey Fist. 'So obvious in fact that it would be the _first_ place Kim Possible would look. This place may be less convenient, but in the end it will be much more effective.'

There was a goodly amount of equipment that was already set up in the lair. Lights were glowing in the cavern roof, powered by a generator. A makeshift workstation with tools was set up at one end. Nearby was another table, roughly carved as if out of the stone itself, but flat and smooth on top. On this table rested the Oscillation Overthruster and the Waveform Harmonicizer. Both of these were connected to several cables which threaded across the cavern floor, linking to the generator and to several computer banks. And near that table, there was a tall pile of stacked girders, rows of unshaped sheet metal, and large spools of wire and cable. There were also numerous unopened wooden crates.

'Things have gone well so far.' said Monkey Fist, looking around. He placed a case on the table next to the Waveform Harmonicizer and opened it. The CMC Transmat was inside, along with a small sticky note. _'With our compliments - TP'._ 'Nearly all the components are gathered, and then we move towards construction.'

'My patience has limits.' said Maze. 'I have consented with the gathering of these..._mechanical_ supplies because you assured me that it will solve the problem I have had with the creation of my servants...' He gestured to the other end of the cavern, where two statues stood silent and motionless.

'And it _will_.' said Monkey Fist, sounding impatient himself. 'Patience - a trait we will both need to develop. If we do not, then failure will lurk around every corner we turn.'

Maze nodded grudgingly. 'But if, as you say, we have gathered the components we need, then I see no reason to delay the operation we have discussed.'

Monkey Fist nodded. 'Just remember - there will be _two _targets, not one. Both must be dealt with or all our future operations will be set at hazard.'

Maze's expression darkened. 'I will require deep meditation. The medicine is extremely powerful. To extended it to _two_ persons will require great effort, as well as assistance from _you_.'

'Very well.' said Monkey Fist. 'We will carry it out as part of gathering the last component. I will arrange things as we have discussed. Rest now - and you will soon see that I have not been exaggerating about the usefulness of these devices...'

Maze nodded, and walked away towards a darker area of the cavern. He went to a pile of straw he had set up in an out of the way corner of the lair, with some warm blankets. He preferred to be out of sight of the mechanical sections of the complex, which seemed an ugly blight to him amidst the natural cavern.

As he passed by, the two statues turned with a grinding noise and followed him. As he laid down and closed his eyes, the statues flanked the area where his bed was set up and went motionless again. He had created the statues with great effort, but they had proved useful, being tireless servants who performed their duties without question. With their strength, they had brought all the equipment they needed to the lair. Monkey Fist also worked tirelessly, though he often looked envious when Maze slept or ate.

And Maze craved sleep now, pulling a blanket over himself. He would need all his strength soon if they were to succeed. He kept one hand clutched around his staff, even as he lay without moving. And he smiled to himself as he considered how much closer the plan was to beginning.

_'Katasistsikoowa...'_ he thought, knowing that Rhonda could not hear him. '_Did you truly believe that I would slink away after my defeat? Did you believe that I would allow a pale-faced usurper to steal the power of the Great Bear Spirit? I may not be able to take the power away from you - but I can ensure that you no longer remain in this world to use it. The words of the Great Bear will come true - there will be only one...'_

When Maze had gone out of sight into the shadows, Monkey Fist went to the table where the Overthruster, the Harmonicizer and the Transmat were waiting. Since being awakened by Maze at the Yamanouchi shrine, he had not slept. He no longer needed sleep, or food. His stone body required neither, nor was it capable of using them.

The plus side was that he felt no hunger, weariness or pain. The downside was, he felt nothing at all. He had no sense of touch that he could discern, and could only tell if he was holding something too hard by whether it broke or shattered. But he had been patiently re-training himself for days, getting used to his new condition, tolerating the numbness. And despite the numbness, he felt a mental chill as he recalled being turned to stone and entombed beneath the Yono shrine - an experience he did not care to repeat. For now, his existence was in Maze's hands, and their destinies were woven together.

He carefully hooked up the CMC Transmat to the Overthruster and the Harmonicizer. He checked the computers and the other equipment carefully, consulting several manuals and other material. Computers and gadgetry weren't really his favorite things to work with. He much preferred the simple elegance of Tai Shing Pek Kwar and the subtle nuance of the mystical arts. But this was necessary, and as part of achieving his goals, he kept at it patiently. On this smaller scale, he was grateful to find his efforts were successful, and all three components were shown to be working properly, and in unison.

He smiled and sat down at the computer near the desk, the chair groaning under his weight. He composed a simple e-mail, grimacing once as his finger pressed a key too hard and nearly knocked it loose from the keyboard. He held back, trying to avoid putting too much pressure behind his long fingers.

_To: TP  
Subject: Another Task_

_We require a device from UNIT Laboratories - a device called the Universal Decryption Matrix. Our previous tasks have had no set timetable, but procuring this device is a matter of some urgency. We will pay triple our past fees if you can procure this device within the next two days._

_We anxiously await your reply,  
Anon._

Monkey Fist checked to make sure their connection was being routed and protected through all three devices before sending it off. He was just about to get up and start unpacking some of the crates when he heard a beep from the inbox. He smiled as he opened and read the reply.

_To: Anon  
Re: Another Task_

_I think that can be arranged -  
TP_

Monkey Fist checked the screens hooked to the Overthruster, the Harmonicizer and the Transmat. They listed several dozen attempts to trace the e-mail, but also that each one had been blocked. He now felt their lines of communication were secure enough to proceed. He worked with the controls for some time before he was satisfied, making sure his cell phone was connected through a series of wires and jacks to the hub which joined the three devices together. Then he opened the cell phone and carefully dialed a set of numbers...

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Kim flounced hurriedly down the stairs, heading towards the living room. She felt the fresh coolness about her that she always felt when she dressed after having a shower. Practice with Ron at the dojo had gone well again. Ron hadn't been able to unleash his power the same way he had on the practice dummy a few days ago, but he had still performed admirably.

She had come home and gotten cleaned up, and was just finished drying her hair when she heard her father calling from downstairs. 'Kimmy - it's for you!' She hadn't even heard the phone ringing. Or if she had, she had mentally ignored it since everyone she knew who wanted to talk with her did it through her Kimmunicator.

Kim stopped by the phone in the living room. She looked at it for a moment, wondering why the house even bothered with a LAN line when practically every member of the family had cell phones. She herself hadn't touched a _regular_ phone in ages, a streak which was broken as she picked up the receiver. 'Hello?' she said.

The voice that answered was muffled and so distorted that she couldn't tell who it was. It sounded male, but that was only because it was deep. 'Is this _Kim Possible_, the famous crime fighter?'

'Yes.' she said, slightly unnerved. She cradled the phone receiver under her chin and brought up her Kimmunicator. It was tough to text while talking, but she sent a quick message to Wade. _Need trace on incoming LAN line call to my house - urgent._

Even as Kim sent the message, the voice was speaking. 'You may be interested in knowing - there is a top secret lab called UNIT which is working on a device called the Universal Decryption Matrix.'

'Yeah.' she said offhandedly, not really listening, but staring expectantly at her Kimmunicator screen. And at last, against the dark blue of the screen she saw a string of pale blue letters appear. _Trace is being blocked somehow. Never seen encryption like this before._ The voice continued speaking as Kim texted back. _Keep trying_.

'It is highly..._probable_... that this device will soon be stolen.'

The emphasis that was put on _probable_ caused both anger and excitement in Kim. 'Who is this?' she said. But even as she said the words, there was a click and the dial tone buzzed in her ear. Barely a second later, she was talking to Wade. 'OK Wade - ethics aside - did you record that? Did you hear what he said?'

'Uh... _yes_.' said Wade, sounding uncomfortable.

Kim frowned. 'Can you run it through your computer and unmask the distortion?'

'Sorry Kim.' he said. 'It's too heavily buffered. All the stuff I'm trying right now is making it sound even worse.'

'Can you tell me _anything_ about it?'

'It's... most likely male.' he said. 'And it sounds a bit... _stony_.'

'Probable - he said_ probable_.' Kim said. 'Do you think...?'

'That someone's tipping us off to Team Probable's next target?' Wade said. 'Could be.'

Kim was quiet for several seconds. 'Where's the UNIT building located?' she said.

Wade smiled. 'Fortune favors the bold. I don't suppose it's any good telling you it _could _be Grimm setting us up for a trap - or maybe a diversion so they can hit someplace else.'

'D'oy.' said Kim, smiling back. 'I'm not planning to rush in blind. Keep your eyes on it and I'll have the Sloth ready to go with sub-orbital engines primed and ready.'

'How about Ron?' Wade said. 'Will he be ready to face off with Rhonda?'

'I'm not sure.' she said. 'But... fortune favors the bold.'

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Monkey Fist set down the cell phone, a wide smirk playing across his stone face. The stage was set, and now it was simply a matter of keeping an eye on both factions until they made their moves. The vision of a boy with an unkempt mass of blonde hair suddenly flashed into his mind. _'You idiotic buffoon!' _he thought bitterly to himself. '_And they call you the 'chosen one'.__ The ultimate monkey master, the keeper of the Han. It will not be allowed...'_

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The central building of UNIT was a large skyscraper with nearly twenty floors, though it was easily overlooked amid the other skyscrapers which surrounded it in the large city. The exterior gleamed with reflective windows, which were now darkened as night fell. UNIT specialized in computer equipment and experimental software. As such, they were a prime target for industrial espionage and had developed a multi-layered system to deter thieves. The main development took place on the upper floors, where access was much more difficult. Keycards were required at every door and alarm systems were active in every room that was not in use.

With such a high degree of electronic protection, it was considered there was not a great need for security personnel at night. A few watchmen were normally gathered together in the main security room, which had a panel of nearly three dozen screens, displaying the views from surveillance cameras mounted throughout the building.

And the guards were seated behind their consoles that night, each one of them assigned to oversee a certain number of the camera screens. It was dull work, which required an uncanny ability to ignore boredom and an even more uncanny ability to stay awake. The security chief himself was wrestling with that very issue, his chin nodding as his eyes tried to focus on several flickering black-and-white screens at once. All the other employees had gone home for the night, and watching the view of empty labs and offices was not the sort of thing that kept the mind actively engaged.

He twitched back to full awareness as another blue-suited guard stepped into the room, the thick metal door with the UNIT logo on it sliding shut behind him with a hiss. 'Calhoun?' said the security chief. 'What in the world are you doing here? You're on corridor patrol tonight.'

Barney Calhoun nodded, smiling faintly. 'Believe me, I know it.' he said. Patrol duty was a task they all rotated through, with one of them roaming the halls to make sure nothing was going on that escaped the notice of the camera crews. 'But a delivery boy from Java The Hutt just came by with this. He said it was paid for by the UNIT bigwigs. I guess they must actually realize that this stuff comes in handy on the night shift.'

It was then the security chief noticed what Barney was carrying - two drink caddys that contained a dozen large cups of gourmet coffee. The chief took a card that was tucked in the side of one caddy and whistled. 'Listen to this guys,' he said. _ 'A token of appreciation for all your hard work. Enjoy and stay vigilant - Leonard Kay, CEO, UNIT.'_

The other guards were taking cups with expressions that ranged from delight to disbelief. 'Gotta be the first time those stuffed shirts even recognized that we exist.' said Barney, taking a sip from a cup he had already claimed for himself.

'Yeah.' said the security chief with a chuckle. 'Maybe they aren't the clueless cheapskates we always say they are.' He took a swallow through the straw in his cup. It tasted great, and wasn't too hot. 'Get back on patrol Calhoun - unless you can't drink and walk at the same time.'

Barney sniffed and went back out through the door. He held the cup, which warmed his hand as he walked and he swapped hands periodically to keep the cup from getting his fingers too hot. He was just approaching the elevator when his head began swimming. He blinked, swaying where he stood. The elevator door was only feet away, but his vision was blurring and he staggered. The cup fell from his hand and he collapsed to the floor, unconscious. Back in the monitor room, six guards and the chief were slumped over their consoles, not moving except for their soft breathing.

Outside, a small box that looked like an ultra-sophisticated cell phone was hovering at one of the reflective windows that looked in on the area where the security offices were located. A thin, red beam lanced out, cutting a small hole in the glass, which the device passed through. It swept over to the unconscious Calhoun and tiny claws seized his keycard.

The doors to the security office hissed open and the small device entered. A tiny screen tilted up, and Jade's face craned this way and that, looking around. She, Grimm and Rhonda had spent the previous day in hurried preparation; studying the building plans, finding security holes, memorizing floor layouts and exit routes, going over the guard shifts and the building security measures. Their client had requested two days to get the UDM, so the operation had been put into motion rather more quickly than they were used to. But so far taking out the security guards had gone smoothly.

She steered Grimm's communicator over to one of the camera consoles and looked around at the sleeping guards. 'Serves you right for relying on chemical stimulants to do your job!' she said, her voice sounding tinny through the speaker.

Wires snaked out of the communicator, interfacing with the security panels. Jade sat at her chair at home. Rhonda's voice beeped in over her own communicator. 'Grimm says - how's it going Jade?' she said.

Jade's eyebrows narrowed as she hacked. 'Tell Grimm this is tough. The UNIT security grid has multiple layers of encryption and... OK I'm in!' Another few minutes of furious clacking at her computer keyboard, and Jade tilted the communicator screen to look up. Every monitor had gone black, and all the consoles were deactivated. She licked her finger and touched her other arm, making a hissing sound with her tongue. 'Oooh Jade, you are hot, hot _hot_!' she said. 'Tell Grimm the surveillance is down - you're good to go!'

It was barely a few seconds later when Grimm and Rhonda slipped through one of the ventilation ducts and into the security wing. Grimm landed neatly on his feet in a low crouch while Rhonda landed on her backside with a squeal. 'Sorry GP!' she whispered.

Grimm motioned her to silence while his communicator skidded across the floor on tiny wheels. He scooped it up quickly. 'Thanks Jade.' he said, looking down at the screen where her face was looking back up at him. 'I feel blindfolded on missions without this thing. Are you in the systems deep enough to function solo?'

'Does iron rust red?' Jade answered. Her face fell slightly at Grimm's confused expression. 'That means _yes_.' she said. 'I've got full access to their security grid and I'll have all the keycard locks open by the time you hit the R&D section. Your chariot awaits!' There was a soft _ding_ behind them, and the door to the elevator opened.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Kim parked the Sloth in front of the UNIT building. The skyscraper reached up into the darkness of the night sky, its reflective windows wedged alternately between rising columns of smooth gray cornice, making the whole structure look like a row of alternating gray and black lines.

Ron got out of the car with Rufus peering out of his pants pocket. 'Nice place.' he said, looking up at the towering structure. 'Very homey looking. So what is it about this building that was important enough to interrupt my first Naco night in three days?'

'Hmmm-hmmm! Nacos!' Rufus squeaked, his tongue smacking around his large front teeth.

'I told you, Team Probable may hit this place.' Kim said.

'_May_?' said Ron hopefully. 'Let's go down to the local Bueno Nacho then - they _may_ strike there too...'

Kim gave him her 'quit fooling around' look. 'We had an anonymous tip-off. Wade's been going over the building. So far it looks OK. If it is, we go back home. If it's not... then we could be squaring off with Rhonda and Grimm before long.'

Ron looked nervous at the prospect, but he followed her as she made her way through a small plaza that surrounded the building, threading through some benches and a decorative bronze fountain. 'Uh... Kim?' and he paused, looking a little sheepish. 'No matter what happens, before we go in - I just wanted to say... _thanks_.' he said.

Kim also paused, turning to look at him. 'Thanks for what?' she said.

'Well, for everything.' Ron said. 'The training, the support, and... well, for just _being_ there. You've always believed in me, even when I didn't believe in myself. And you've always stuck by me, even when I didn't come through or when I did something stupid. You're not just a bon-diggety girlfriend. You're the _best_ friend I've ever had. I promise - I won't let you down.'

Kim felt a bit uncomfortable by the praise. She still felt badly about essentially_ browbeating_ Ron into tapping into his Monkey Power when he had admitted to her that it frightened him. She opened her mouth to say something, even though she wasn't quite sure what to say.

But Ron was already looking away and continuing towards the UNIT Building. Kim faltered, the air of a mission in progress settling around them both. She sped up and took the lead, but she resolved after the mission was over that she would make things up to Ron somehow.

They reached the main entrance with it's stern looking, but highly polished heavy glass doors. The security lock was glowing red, but they could see through the tinted glass into the lobby where the main desk was situated. They saw a uniformed security guard, but only his head and arms were visible, slumped over the desk as if he were asleep.

Ron tapped the glass, but the guard did not stir. He began dancing and waving his arms. 'Hey! Guard guy! It's not _that_ late!'

Kim stared. 'No, it isn't...' she said. Even if the guard was just dozing, there was no way he could be sleeping through the racket Ron was making as he tapped his keys and mashed his face into the glass. The security lock also didn't give any indication that any alarms had been tripped by Ron's hammering on the door. She felt a rush of adrenaline. 'Wade - someone _is_ here! The lobby guard is knocked out or something. Can you get us in through the front door?'

Wade was answering while typing. 'Could be tricky. UNIT's a high-profile, OK you're in!' he chirped. The red light on the security lock turned green and there was a friendly sounding beep. Ron's next push against it sent him tumbling forward into the lobby with a yelp.

'You rock, Wade.' Kim said, stepping inside. They crossed to the main desk, but were unable to rouse the guard. His breathing was steady though, and he seemed unhurt. A tall cup of coffee was still steaming next to his elbow. Wade's security scan slid across the cup without Kim doing anything.

'Knock-out drops.' he said. 'Not exactly highbrow, but effective.'

'So what now?' said Ron. 'This building is huge - whoever's here, we don't even know what floor they might have gone to...'

Wade was typing and looking left and right. 'The R & D labs are all on the upper floors. The UDM is probably there. Better take the guard's keycard. Most of the doors require one for access.'

'Sorry dude.' said Ron, slipping the card out of the guard's belt. He heard a beep behind him in the lobby and whirled quickly, but it was only the elevator door opening.

'I know it's not as exotic as coming in on the roof by parachute.' said Wade. 'But at least it's got muzak!'

As the elevator door closed behind Kim and Ron, the lobby remained quiet. Once the hum of the elevator fell and grew faint, there was another beep and a loud_ click_ as the security lock on the main entrance closed fast and the light blinked red...

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Grimm and Rhonda reached the first of about six floors that comprised UNIT's labs for research and development. Rhonda stayed at Grimm's elbow. The floor had a dim look, with most of the lights being off for the day and the few which remained on did not give much light to see by.

Grimm was holding up his communicator. 'Point me.' he said. But he did a double-take as a rattling hiss emanated from the device instead of Jade's voice. He worked the controls, trying various frequencies. But both the screen and the speakers were overwhelmed by static.

Rhonda bit her lip. 'What?' she said.

'I don't know.' he answered. 'Communicator's down.'

Rhonda looked around. 'So how do we find this thing without Jade?'

Grimm shrugged, looking up and down the corridor where he saw several rows of tiny green lights, one on each door. 'She's still got the locks disabled, no need to panic. Use your communicator and keep trying to get in touch with her. And in the meantime, we split up and check each lab. You and Rueful take the east side, I'll take the west.'

'Split up?' said Rhonda, looking fidgety. 'We're _splitting up_?'

Grimm smiled. 'Don't be so literal. And don't wig out - you know what the UDM looks like, we studied it together. If you see it, grab it. If not, we meet back here in ten and move to the next floor.'

Grimm turned left and opened a lab door, disappearing inside. Rhonda stared after him for a moment, then tapped her backpack softly. Rueful popped out and scurried down her leg. 'Keep your weasel-sense peeled, Rueful.' she whispered. 'I'll need your eyes and ears.' Rueful saluted and posed like a pointer hound, his tail extended behind him. Rhonda gulped, turned right and hesitantly went down the hall towards one of the tiny green lights.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Kim and Ron exited the elevator, the soft chime of the door alert sounding in their ears. Ron had on his whining face, his head tilted slightly to the side, his eyes almost closed and his mouth hanging slightly open. 'Awwww_ KP_, how many floors are we gonna have to check? There wasn't anyone on the last three...'

Kim didn't answer directly, but she admitted to herself that Ron had a point. They needed a nudge in the right direction. She held up her Kimmunicator. 'Sitch me Wade.' she said. 'Tell us if we're wasting our time here...'

After a moment waiting for Wade to answer, she looked down in surprise. Wade's face was almost totally obscured by lances and bolts of static. His voice was patchy and intermittent, and she could only catch a word or two between protracted periods of hissing and popping. 'Kim... -eing... ja... -ource! ...-rying... break...!'

'Wade!' she said, smacking the Kimmunicator with her free hand periodically. She tried standing next to a window, hoping for a clearer signal or something, but eventually the transmissions devolved into nothing but static.

'What's happening?' Ron said. 'Did we run out of internet or something?'

'I think he said we're being jammed.' Kim said. 'Try _your_ communicator.'

Ron took out the small device from his pants pocket while Rufus poked his head out of the other pocket. Except for the static now coming in stereo, there was nothing. 'What does it mean?' he asked.

Kim's eyes narrowed. 'In general - I think it means Team Probable knows we're here and they're trying to make sure we can't find them. In the short term, it means we split up to cover more territory.'

'Uh...' said Ron nervously. 'Wouldn't that mean if we _did _find them that only _one_ of us would be facing _all_ of them? And that without communicators we'd have no way to call for help?'

'Don't worry.' said Kim. 'I'll be fine. And I know _you'll_ be fine too.' Ron still looked like he would rather be following her than going off alone. She laid one gloved hand on the side of his cheek. 'Hey - this is what we've _both_ been training for.' she said. 'I'll check the left hallways, you check the right. If you find someone... _holler_. If not, we meet back here in five and try the next floor. Go get 'em!' And with that, she turned left and started checking doors.

Ron turned right and crept slowly down the hallway. Even though Kim was on the same floor, the building was vast enough that he was quickly enveloped in stillness and it was not hard to imagine that he was totally alone. The dim, gray silence unsettled him and he went into karate poses several times at the movement of his own shadow as he walked. But he saw no sign of anyone, and heard no noises. He yelped as he felt a tug at his ankle, but quickly calmed down as he saw it was Rufus. The mole rat was pointing down another T-junction and chittering excitedly.

Ron gulped, knowing Rufus had seen something. He took out his communicator, but was again bombarded with an array of static. He put it back in his pocket, squaring his shoulders and trying to remember some of Sensei's calming techniques. 'OK Ron,' he whispered to himself. 'Time to step up again!'

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Rhonda opened a door leading into another sprawling lab. There were only a few work desks in this one, and her footsteps echoed through the room, even stepping softly. She looked around, but she could see nothing that resembled the UDM. She was glad now that Grimm had made her study the design drawings Jade had hacked for them before the mission. Without him there beside her, and without Jade guiding them, the mission seemed somehow more foreboding. She touched the velcro patch on her left shoulder which covered her birthmark, wishing the power of the Great Bear included some kind of 'spider sense'.

_'Hey, Rhonda!'_

She started and whirled where she stood in the center of the lab. Standing in the doorway she had come through, she saw a freckle-faced boy with blonde hair, looking at her with eyes that were focused and determined.

Rhonda felt her nervousness fading. Here at least was something she had trained and prepared for, something she was used to. 'Hey there, doofus-boy!' she said with a sneer. 'I was wondering if you'd turn up!' She tapped the floor with her foot twice, and Rueful darted to her side, appearing as if from nowhere. Both Rhonda and Rueful went into a mirror pose, standing at the ready. 'I suppose you and carrot-top are the reason why our communicators went on the fritz?'

Ron blinked as he and Rufus went into stances of Tai Shing Pek Kwar. 'Don't play dumb lady, you're the ones fiddling with _our_ communicators!'

'Did not!' said Rhonda.  
'Did too!' Ron shot back.

Rhonda's face narrowed and her eyes glittered as if Ron's denial was some kind of clever retort. 'Did _not_!' she repeated more loudly.

'Did _too_!'  
'_Did not!'  
'Did too!'_

Rufus and Rueful were sticking their tongues out at each other as their masters continued back and forth. Ron was just about to switch and say _did not_ to see if Rhonda would switch too like a Bugs Bunny cartoon when they heard a noise to their left.

They both looked to the side as another door opened on the west end of the lab. Grimm entered the room, but stopped as he saw both Ron and Rhonda facing off. 'So they _are_ here.' he said, his familiar smirk creeping into place. 'I should have known.'

Ron felt his stomach going tight, a feeling which had nothing to do with a longing for Nacos. This was just what he had been worried about - facing Team Probable by himself. He glanced to the east end of the lab, hoping to see Kim come in through another door, but nothing happened. It was just him and Rufus. 'So it's me against the greesome threesome!' he said, trying to charge his voice with more bravado than he was feeling. 'And judging by the looks of you, this lab must be where they're developing the ugly stick!'

Grimm looked at him coldly. 'What's with _you_?' he said. 'We haven't even done anything... _yet_.'

'What's up is your girlfriend be illin!' he said, pointing at her while Rufus nodded vigorously.

'Rhonda,' said Grimm, turning to her. 'Do you be _illin'_?'

'No!' said Rhonda quickly, but she looked sheepishly down as Grimm stared at her. 'Maybe.' she said again, more timidly. She glanced up at him, but her eyes flicked away almost at once. 'Yes!' she said at last, looking up at him. 'But there was a 'ch' sound in front, I swear!'

Grimm looked back at Ron as if sizing things up. 'Want any help mopping the floor?' he said.

Rhonda shook her head. 'You want to finish the mission, right?' she said. 'Go on - I can handle things here, even if Ms. Priss shows up too!'

Grimm nodded. 'You know the drill.' he said, backing towards the door he had come in through. 'We hook up back at the entry point when we're done. I'll be waiting.'

'Don't worry,' said Rhonda, cracking her knuckles. 'This won't take long!' Grimm disappeared through the door. Ron remained at the ready. Rhonda was walking towards him with a fierce smile on her face, tearing open the velco patch on her shoulder.

'Don't think your stupid lip gloss is gonna save you this time!' she said. 'We both know you've got _nuthin_!' She brought her hands together, closing her eyes, her voice rising in a soft chant.

_Omahkkiaayowa, Omahkkiaayowa,  
Nitohpoksiiyikitapiiyi!_

Ron remembered this was what she'd done last time before she started kicking butt. He ran forward, thinking that if maybe he could drop her before she finished chanting, he could stop her from using her powers. He didn't like the idea of clobbering a girl who was just standing there, but he reminded himself of what Rhonda was now capable of. Just as he reached her, he saw her eyes open, and a white glare was glowing behind them like silver fire. Her hand gripped his and he felt a crushing pressure, a bluish glow surrounded Rhonda's body.

He gasped and shifted his stance, twisting and rolling with her throw as she went into a judo toss. He sailed a fair distance before landing on his back and sliding head first to the far end of the room with a squealing sound as his belt and his pants scraped against the tile.

Rufus scurried around the desks and through the legs of work stools and chairs, following after his master. But a streak of furry brown suddenly darted out in front of him and Rueful was rearing up in front of him. Rufus tried to feint and slide past him, but Rueful was very quick and flexible, his long body slithering through the desk chairs in pursuit.

Ron got to his feet just in time as Rhonda leaped forward, her leg coming down in a powerful kick that slammed into the floor like a pile driver. He rolled backwards, feeling a shockwave expanding around him like a bubble made of sheer force. There was a deafening boom, and he moved sideways, dodging as Rhonda threw one punch at him, then another.

He squealed and weaved, using every evasion technique he knew, barely staying ahead of her strikes. 'I'm gonna knock you so hard your _Sensei_ will feel it!' she snarled. 'You think your Monkey Kung-Fu is gonna stop me? I've been training against Grimm, and _he's_ a master, you scruffy-looking nerf herder!'

'Hey! Who's_scruffy-looking_?' he said, narrowly avoiding another blow which caved in the top of the lab desk next to him. But the crack about Master Sensei caused him to think about his training at Yamanouchi, and that set him thinking about his training with Kim. He remembered how he'd felt before that burst of power that had wrecked the target dummy.

_'It comes when you call...'_ Kim had said. And he remembered being swarmed by Monkey ninjas while the Yono was going after his sister, and shouting; _'Where are my monkey powers when I need them?'_ And he realized at that time, he _hadn't_ called on them - he'd just expected them to work when he wanted it to.

He was back against the wall of the lab now, and another punch from Rhonda plowed straight through the sheet rock as he stepped aside. _'Come on, Monkey Power...'_ he thought. _'If you're there, I'm calling you!'_

And he opened his eyes, a faint smile on his lips.

Rhonda was sending a fist towards him, and was barely inches from connecting. _'Gotcha!'_ she thought. But she blinked, and in that split second, Ron had disappeared. She stumbled, and her punch crumpled a metal bookshelf that was against the wall in front of her. She looked around wildly, and saw Ron standing beside her, standing in a posture that was much more _monkey-ish_ than he normally used. She struck again with a whirling kick, but Ron did a graceful pirouette and her strike hit empty air. She frowned, sensing something different. When Ron dodged her next wave of strikes, his body curling perfectly around her punches, she backed off a couple of steps. He looked relaxed and strangely _zen_, his eyes nearly closed as if he were thinking about something else rather than confronting a dangerous enemy.

'You've been holding out on me!' she said. 'Been studying ballet or something?'

Ron went into a crouch with one arm curved above his head and one curved below his chest so he looked like one of the plastic monkeys in a barrel. 'Ballet? I beg to differ - oooh, oooh, oooh!' and he twitched his arms tauntingly.

Rhonda nearly flinched, because he looked just like Grimm when he did that, a posture of Monkey Kung Fu that she'd seen him using reflexively hundreds of times. Rueful skittered to her side just as Rufus popped up beside Ron.

Rhonda gritted her teeth. The mark on her arm burned white and the glowing blue light surrounded her again. She screamed, a thundering roar like a bear filling the lab and making the floor itself quiver. Ron grimaced, and a similar blue glow blossomed around him. He smacked his fists together and the glow suddenly flared brilliantly, taking on the shape of a fierce monkey before fading back into the halo that clung to him. The two chosen ones faced each other, scowling.

'You know,' Ron said, looking at her and at himself. 'That was pretty cool.'

Rhonda paused. 'Yeah...' she said, and there was a touch of regret in her voice. 'Too bad no one else was here to see it.'

They stared at each other in silence for one more second, then at the same instant, they charged to the attack.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Kim had made the circuit of the main hallway that ran around the entire floor like a ring that connected the central block of labs. She was just about to open one of the doors, when she caught a glimpse of something moving down the long, tunnel-like hall.

She was staring at a lone figure who was also crossing the hallway on the opposite end. It paused, looking at her. The dim lights cast only a faint yellow outline on the figure. But there was no mistaking the spiky-haired silhouette. The figure called down the hallway, and Grimm's voice had an echoing quality is it came to her ears. 'We gotta stop meeting like this, Possible. People will start talking.'

The leather in Kim's gloves creaked as she clenched both hands. She thought about calling for Ron, but was sure if she took her eyes off him for one instant, she might lose him. For a few seconds, she said nothing, until Grimm finally piped up again. 'Isn't this where you usually say, "You are _so_ going to jail"? I can't help wondering sometimes if you do-gooders ever get tired of the cat-and-mouse game.'

Kim was tense, every muscle ready and twitching. 'You can always come quietly.' she said.

'Uh-uh.' said Grimm, curling his own finger at her. 'Some of us actually _like_ the game. Bring it!'

Kim ground her teeth together, racing down the long hallway towards him. Despite the fact that she was running as fast as she could, it still seemed as if she were moving in slow motion.

Grimm smirked as she got closer and closer. 'Gimme five, up high.' he said, then he crouched and darted to the side, disappearing around the corner. Kim rounded the turn and sped after him. He still seemed maddeningly far ahead, and was already at the next turn in the hallway.

'Down low!' she heard his voice shouting. She made the next turn, but saw no sign of him. She looked wildly to the left and the right, then heard a noise at an annex half way down the hall. She dashed towards the annex and saw a block of yellow light that was getting thinner and thinner before her eyes - the doors to an elevator sliding closed. She ran forward and caught one glimpse of Grimm, smirking out at her.

'Too slow!' his voice sounded just as the doors snapped shut. Kim clawed her fingers into the crack, trying to pry the doors open again, but a mechanical hum and a whirring told her it was too late. The elevator was moving up. She hammered the button for the next elevator, but lost patience and moved back into the hall. She saw a door at the end of the hall leading to the stairwell and ran towards it, throwing it open. She heaved herself up the concrete spiral. Whether she took the elevator or not, she couldn't be sure which floor Grimm would take as his exit - or perhaps he had climbed out and was hiding in the elevator shaft while sending the elevator itself ahead as a decoy.

She stared in helpless frustration at her blank Kimmunicator screen. There was so much Wade did for her, so much information that he gave which she took for granted, and she felt like she was flailing in the dark. She made a mental note to do something nice for Wade as well as Ron. Then she started checking doors on the way up, listening for signs of movement.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Grimm stole quietly down a hallway leading to the executive suites. His trained ears could hear nothing, and he was fairly confident that he'd lost Kim through the elevator and in the many corridors. He was determined to complete the mission - or at least verify that it could not be completed - before withdrawing.

He frowned as he took out his communicator, trying again to get in touch with Jade. But his screen showed only a persistent display of snowy static. But through the fog of static, he found he was now able to zero in on the UDM's general location. He was relieved that he could at least keep the goal of the mission in his sights, but after a few minutes, he started feeling more and more suspicious.

He didn't like the way things were going at all. Their communicators had ways to penetrate normal security jammers. The only way to block them was with specialized equipment. And someone would have to _know_ in advance what kind of equipment to set up in order to do it. The only explanation was that someone had known they were coming and somehow set things up in advance.

And his frown grew deeper, latching onto that thought. The only one who could have known in advance that they were coming was their client. But it made no sense to him - the same client had hired them for the last few jobs they'd done, and hadn't warned Team Possible about any of them. Why wait until now to pull a double-cross?

And his memory flashed back to how he himself had used Adrena Lynn, and then left her to be arrested... _ once she'd served her purpose_. He looked at the communicator screen again, still showing nothing but a vague directional location of the UDM, ghosting in and out like a lure meant to keep him diverted. And as plain as a light in the dark, it came to him that not only had someone known how to jam their communicators, but they were doing it so well that they could selectively decide what signals to let through. He felt a dark chill and paused in the hallway, his resolve to finish the assignment wavering. Too many things weren't adding up - too many coincidences that were too coincidental. It was time to bail.

He doubled back and went down a different hallway, looking for a stairwell so he could find his way back down to Rhonda. He couldn't trust his communicator any longer, which meant every electrical device, including the elevator, was now suspect. The next hall led to a large set of wooden double doors. He saw no cameras, but he proceeded cautiously. Even without his communicator he still had training in techniques to spot surveillance equipment, as well as using his senses to sniff out anyone who might be hiding nearby.

The corridor was obviously made for show, and for impressing stockholders and clients. It was lined with expensive art that companies often had near important rooms as an outward display of how powerful and successful the company was. There were paintings, sculptures and other such finery set in recessed alcoves on either side of the hall. In one section there were a number of statues of various kinds, some marble, some bronze, some granite. Grimm paid little attention to them, looking for any sign or light marked as an exit.

He was nearing the wooden door, but he could tell the hall was a dead end. He was about to turn and head back when he heard a rasping sound behind him, like the sound of stone being dragged across stone...

He rolled just in time to avoid the worst of it, but he still felt a sharp pain across his back as a heavy blow glanced off his shoulder. He rolled and turned to face his attacker, neatly going into a ready stance.

He was looking at a statue of Monkey Fist, which was blocking his way back down the hall. One empty alcove showed that it had been standing there and waiting. Grimm was surprised. His first thought was that it was some kind of robot, made to look like a statue, and designed to guard the corridor. Except no robot he had ever seen could affect the look that was on the face of this statue - a look of excitement and anticipation. And to his astonishment, the statue's expression changed to one of amusement.

'Most impressive, young Grimm.' And Monkey Fist's voice came from the statue, sounding cool and relaxed. 'Your senses and reflexes are as sharp as ever. It's good to see that the time I spent training you after your expulsion from Yamanouchi was not wasted.'

Grimm stared. The way the statue spoke, the way it moved and even the way it carried itself... But it couldn't be possible. '_Monkey Fist_?' he said. 'The last I heard, you were returning to Japan on one of your mystical quests. Everyone thought you'd disappeared. What _happened_ to you?'

The statue's lips curled into a smile and Monkey Fist went into a ready stance of his own. 'A great number of things.' he said. 'One of which was... an _alteration_ in my plans to become the ultimate Monkey Master.'

Grimm looked back at him. 'So what are you doing _here_?' he said. 'I'm on a mission right now. If you wanted to hire me to help you find the Han, I should say that trying to clock me from behind was the worst way to get me to lower my rates...'

'The Han no longer interests me.' said Monkey Fist, his eyes narrowing. 'I am here on a mission of my _own_. I apologize for what must now happen - but that mission involves _you_ and your friend.'

Grimm remained in his ready stance as Monkey Fist suddenly charged at him. Grimm could tell from the sound of his footsteps that Monkey Fist was _heavy_ - much heavier than he'd been when he had hired Grimm to locate the first key to the Yamanouchi shrines.

He deflected Monkey Fist's strike, but felt pain in his hand. Even through his glove, it felt like his hand had been scraped across rough stone. He flexed his arm and shifted his stance in a practiced move of Tai Shing Pek Kwar, designed to throw an attacking foe off balance and leave them open to a follow-up strike. But he winced, for Monkey Fist did not budge or lose his balance. It was like trying to push against a heavy boulder and he was forced to duck and roll as Monkey Fist brought his other arm across in a sweeping blow that curved through the wall. His fingers left deep gouges in the paneled wood.

Instinctively, Grimm turned his roll into a low crouch and sent out one leg in a foot sweep. But he cried out in pain, for it felt as if he'd slammed his ankle into a solid wall of rock. And he saw Monkey Fist raise one foot, which clasped around his shin. Grimm tried to pull free. He had forgotten that Monkey Fist could grip with his feet as well as his hands, and the finger-like toes clenched around him like a vice.

He winced and tried striking at the foot, trying to cause pain so that Monkey Fist would release him. He altered his focus and his level of strength, trying to remember his training, to remember how to 'think through' objects when you were trying to break bricks or boards with your bare hands. But even this did not help. Monkey Fist did not even seem to feel the blow.

For the first time in a long while, Grimm began to worry. 'What... do you _want_?' he said, grappling with the toes and trying to pry them loose.

Monkey Fist gripped one of Grimm's arms with a free hand and squeezed. Grimm cried out. 'Young Grimm...' he said, and his voice was surprisingly silky considering how stony it was. 'Do you even need to ask? World domination... of _course_!'

And the last thing Grimm saw was a stone fist, rushing at him with such strength that it powered through the block he attempted with his free hand. Then there was a sharp pain, a burst like stars in his eyes, and everything went black.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

'Wade? _Wade_?' Kim said into her wrist Kimmunicator. But there was no response other than a squealing buzz of interference. She paused at the end of a T-junction, reflexively checking her Kimmunicator, even though it was still showing only static. She wondered which way Grimm had gone, or if he'd pulled the air-vent trick and was waiting for her to pass by and double back.

Her eyes flicked to the vents from pure instinct, looking for the telltale signs that someone had tampered with the grates, then she went on, choosing the left corridor. It ended in a door that led into another sterile white laboratory, this one geared up like a computer lab. She was sure that the jamming was something that Jade and Grimm had cooked up to limit her own capabilities. With her Kimmunicator not working properly and unable to reach Wade, she felt half blinded. She checked the lab quickly and was just finishing when she heard something behind her.

Kim started and whirled, her fist raised to strike. But she didn't see Grimm - instead she saw a tall, abnormally thin man with long black hair and a beak-like nose entering the lab, looking around as if searching for something. The man was grossly out of place, looking like a monk that had somehow appeared in the midst of this high-tech establishment and was trying to find his way out. He was dressed in a brown cloak and poncho and had two eagle feathers tied behind his left ear, just like Rhonda did. He held a long staff in his hand which looked like it was tipped with some kind of animal claw.

When he saw Kim's hands poised as if to attack he held out his other hand, his face looking concerned. 'Please - do not harm me!' he said, and his deep voice was soft and gentle. 'You have nothing to fear. My name is Maze and I am an enemy to _Katasistsikoowa_ and _Otaatoyiwa_.'

'Who?' said Kim, and she did not lower her guard.

'You know them as Rhonda and Grimm.' Maze said. 'You wish to defeat them - I wish to help you.'

'Why should I trust _you_?' Kim said.

Maze nodded his head as if in understanding of her skepticism. 'Tell me,' he said, 'The girl - does she fight with great strength and does it seem like you cannot harm her?'

'How did you know...?' said Kim, surprised.

Maze nodded again. 'This is the power of the Great Bear Spirit.' he said. 'It is a mystical power that belongs to my people - the Blackfoot Indians. These two came among our tribe some time ago, they deceived us and stole the power for themselves.'

Kim nodded. 'Yeah,' she said, glancing back towards the labs. 'That sounds like something they'd do.'

Maze continued more quickly, sounding anxious. 'I am a holy man, who you might call a shaman. I was sent by my people to find them reclaim this power. I have strong medicine that I have studied for many years - I can grant you protection that will allow you to defeat her. I will help you - if you will help me.'

Kim looked over the strange man. She didn't know him, yet she had no reason to doubt his story. And she _did_ know Team Probable, who had to be stopped. She still wasn't sure that Ron could tap into his Mystical Monkey Power enough to defeat Rhonda. And if there was any chance that this man could do something that would negate Rhonda's power or even weaken her... 'What do you need from me?' she said.

Maze smiled and stepped forward. 'Simply remain still.' he said. 'I will pray over you now, and when I have finished, _Katasistsikoowa_ will have no power to harm you, _Mi'kksiistsikomma_.'

'_Mi'kksiistsikomma_?' said Kim.

'It means - _Red Thunder_.' he answered.

Kim stood without moving. Maze gripped his staff and closed his eyes, his voice sounding in a soft, rhythmic chant.

_Sipimottakiksi, Sipimottakiksi,  
Nikaahtomaana nitaanistsi'toyiiwa..._

Kim felt a shiver down her spine as Maze continued to chant. She couldn't explain why, but she felt at once that something was wrong. Before she could move, every shadow in the room suddenly lanced out, enveloping her like a spider web made of darkness. Maze dropped to the floor, his staff clattered as it fell from his hand. Kim stood breathing softly for a moment, then opened her eyes. And with a scowling smirk, she reached down and took Maze's staff. Then she heaved Maze himself over her shoulder and began making her way back towards the elevator.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Rhonda shouted as her body was surrounded with a blue flame. The mark on her shoulder glowed brightly. Ron felt his body going light, his feet lost contact with the floor as he rose into the air. Loose objects that were close by rose with him and shrill, chattering screeches like the cries of innumerable monkeys rose against the bassy rumble of the roaring bear.

Ron fell back to the floor, a glowing field of blue shining around him, making his whole body seem blue itself. They charged and clashed in the center of the room. Each one caught the other's fist in mid-flight. They didn't see, but all the desks and tables, even the ones that were bolted down, flew away from them like leaves in a storm. A bubble of blue light exploded out from them and the walls of the room buckled and cracked.

They glared into each other's eyes, their arms straining and trembling as each one strove to overpower the other. Their teeth gritted, and blue light seemed to kindle within their very eyes. Ron moved easily, almost instinctively, through several postures of Tai Shing Pek Kwar, trying to throw her off balance. But Rhonda shifted and countered, her strength and her knowledge of judo matching him perfectly.

Neither of them said anything, or cracked any jokes. It was as if both of them were taken by a spirit which told them their battle was something too serious for fooling around. Ron struck, the glow around him again taking the shape of a fierce monkey with each blow. Rhonda seemed unhurt, her own glow surrounding her like a sphere of raw power, each of Ron's strikes sounding as if it were being halted by solid steel.

Unseen and unnoticed by either of them, Monkey Fist entered the lab. In one of his hands, he held a case containing the UDM. In his other hand he held what looked like a large cocoon of haphazardly twisted cables and wiring. But from one end of the cocoon, the lolling head of Grimm Probable was turning, and he moaned softly.

Monkey Fist ignored Ron and Rhonda, who were still some distance away, oblivious to everything but their own battle. 'Ah, you're awake.' he said, looking down as Grimm opened his eyes. At once, Grimm's eyes focused on him, and his body suddenly clenched as he struggled to move. Monkey Fist laughed. 'Don't bother, Grimm Probable.' he said. 'I had to pull quite a lot of wiring out of the walls, but rest assured, there was more than enough to bind you from head to foot.'

Grimm looked fiercely at Monkey Fist, still squirming inside his makeshift prison. 'Why are you _doing_ this?' he snarled. 'You _hate_ Kim Possible - why are you _helping _her?'

And Monkey Fist laughed, his voice devolving into a breathy cackle like a chattering monkey. 'You think I'm doing this to _help_ Kim Possible?' he said. 'Oh no my friend. I promise you that is the furthest thing from my mind.' As he spoke, he took one loop from the many cables that held Grimm and laid both the case and the cocoon on the floor. He leaped atop one of the desks and looped the wire through one of the struts for the lab sprinkler system. Then he slowly hauled Grimm so he was hanging upside-down, securing the end of the wire to one of the heavier desks.

Then Kim Possible entered the lab from the far side, slightly bent under a burden slung over her shoulder. As soon as she saw Monkey Fist and the battle raging across the room, she nodded and rolled what looked like the limp form of a man from her shoulder and onto the floor. She held up a staff with a curved claw on the tip and two eagle feathers tied beneath it - a staff which Grimm recognized at once. He looked into Kim's eyes and saw a blackness lurking behind them.

_'You..._' Grimm said, his voice a whisper.

'Now all the pieces are on the board.' said Monkey Fist with an evil smile. 'Let the real game begin!' He turned and faced towards Ron and Rhonda...

Ron leaped forward with a whirling kick which struck Rhonda full in the chest. Rhonda grunted, bracing herself against the floor. She was blasted backwards by an explosive burst of blue light from Ron's strike, but her feet left deep gouges in the floor as her strength and protection countered the worst of it. She slammed backwards into a pile of desks that were already lying broken against the wall, clouds of dust rising around her.

Ron stood at the ready, and from the spiraling plumes of dust, Rhonda leaped forward, her eyes blazing, a roar like a bear thundered around him. Ron struck out, but Rhonda landed in front of him, her right hand gripping his wrist. _'Eat claw, monkey boy!'_ she snarled. And her left hand slashed across as she struck at him, five curves of white light spreading from her fingertips.

Ron tried to twist out of their path, but Rhonda held a tight grip on his arm with her right hand, slowing him down. As close as she was when she struck, Ron was only able to dodge four of them. The fifth slashed through his ribcage, leaving no mark, but at once Ron felt strange. The blue glow of the Mystical Monkey Power seemed to part like smoke, remaining on most of his body, but dissipating around his arms and chest.

And then Rhonda was holding him in a merciless hammerlock, a triumphant smile on her face as Ron gritted his teeth and sank to his knees beneath the increasing pressure of Rhonda's strength. Ron tried to focus, to restore the feeling of Monkey Power across his whole body, but his arms remained limp and weak. Without his full strength, he felt the rest of his body giving way. _'I'm sorry KP...'_ he thought. _'I just can't control it enough...'_

Rhonda felt Ron's struggles weakening and laughed. 'Not too shabby, huh?' she growled. 'The spirit strike doesn't do any physical damage to people. Think of it as an all-purpose EMP blast. It takes the strength and power away from anyone it hits, even _mystical_ power - leaving them as weak as a kitten! It's _over_, doofus-boy!'

'You're so right!'

Rhonda gasped and turned at the sound of this new voice. There was a heavy thundering of footsteps behind her, and then both she and Ron were tumbling across the floor, caught in a flying tackle. They felt a pair of inhumanly strong arms winding around both of them, crushing them together in a grip so tight it squeezed the air out of both their lungs.

Rhonda felt a hand with abnormally long fingers clamp over her mouth, muffling her as she tried to chant. The hand was cold and hard, not feeling like flesh at all, but like rough stone. Both Ron and Rhonda struggled, but the arms that held them seemed to match her strength, and Ron's strength was drained by the spirit strike. Ron felt a chill as he heard a familiar voice speaking behind his ear. 'We meet again, my monkey-phobic friend!'

Ron turned his neck slightly, mostly seeing Rhonda's ear, but also the familiar outline of a triangular-shaped head behind them. 'Monkey Fist?' he said. 'Who invited _you_ to this party? I thought you were walking the path of the Yono!'

_'Mmm-mmm Fmm! Wmmm mm hmmm umm mm bmmnngg??'_ Rhonda said, struggling to speak through Monkey Fist's hand.

'I still _am_.' said Monkey Fist, grinning. 'You left me to walk that path alone, buffoon! You left me buried beneath the Earth! But now I shall send_ you_ down a path, to a place from which you will _not _return! _Sskipoyiwa_!'

He shouted this last word, which meant nothing to Ron. But he saw Kim standing in front of them, her eyes looking cold and dark. She held a staff in her hand, and Rhonda's eyes widened.

'_Mmmmvaay_?' she sputtered, her mouth still covered. And Kim looked at her with a smile colder and more malicious than any she could have achieved on her own. She narrowed her eyes and concentrated, her voice sounding out in a low chant.

_Sipimottakiksi, Sipimottakiksi,  
Nikaahtomaana nimaataakaniiwa..._

As Kim continued the chant, every shadow in the room pooled in front of her, like a slowly forming puddle of black water. Monkey Fist threw both Ron and Rhonda down on the floor between himself and Maze. They stood up at once, but as they moved forward, they found themselves halted. A swirling bubble like misty shadow was surrounding them both.

Grimm swayed as he worked his wrists, struggling in his wire cocoon. Monkey Fist had bound his hands tightly. He strained and used every escape technique he'd learned in his training. He knew he would eventually get free, but it would take time. Until he could loose the wires around his hands, there was nothing he could do. He redoubled his efforts, feeling the tendons in his wrists throbbing with pain, feeling the wires biting into his skin, but he ignored it, trying to power through. _'Hold on, Rhonda!'_ he thought.

'Hey... cool!' Ron said, pushing against the shadow barrier. But Rhonda was pushing hard, her face turning pale.

'Oh _crud_...' she said. 'Not again!'

Monkey Fist stood in front of them, and Ron was momentarily impressed that a face which was made of stone could pull off an expression so smug. 'And now I bid you farewell.' he said smoothly. 'I only wish I could say..._it's been nice knowing you_.'

And Kim's brows knitted in concentration, her voice speaking in hurried mutters. Monkey Fist brought his own hands together, chanting alongside with Kim, a string of words they both repeated over and over again.

_Sipimottakiksi, Sipimottakiksi,  
Nikaahtomaana nitaaksiistapokska'siimiiwa!_

From across the room, Grimm was shouting, struggling wildly in the wires which held him bound. '_Possible! You have to snap out of it..!'_

Rhonda's eyes widened in panic, while Ron's face showed only confusion. As Kim chanted, the shadows within the barrier that held them in place swirled, and at the center of the bubble that contained them, an even darker shade began to grow.

Rhonda raised her hand, her fingers glowing with blue light, and she quickly brought it down. Her spirit strike tore open the shadow barrier, but Kim avoided the sickles of light and chanted faster, with more intensity. The dark core within the shadow barrier exploded into a vortex that howled like a storm which had been brought inside.

Ron had still been pushing on the shadow barrier and lurched as it collapsed under Rhonda's spirit strike. At that moment, Monkey Fist darted forward, sending both his hands out in a pair of jabs that knocked Ron and Rhonda backwards into the dark sphere. Like a globe of tar, they both sank into the orb of shadow, which continued to spread around them.

Then Kim was back in herself again. She shuddered for a moment, getting her bearings, and her eyes focused on Ron and Rhonda. They were both being pulled into what looked like a miniature black hole. Ron's hand was reaching out to her, his face looking surprised. Rhonda's arm was reaching towards Grimm and she was shouting his name, her voice tearing through the room in a piercing shriek that seemed as if it were growing steadily more distant. Then both of them were completely engulfed.

There was a sound like a thunderclap, and a burst of darkness that blinded Kim for one brief moment. When she opened her eyes, Maze and Monkey Fist were gone. And so were Ron and Rhonda. Only a spiraling swirl of dust remained in the center of the room, spinning weakly before fading away.

Kim stared with an open mouth at the empty space where Ron had stood, then stared at Grimm, who was hanging upside-down where Monkey Fist had left him, looking just as stricken as she felt herself...

Coming Soon:  
Chapter 7  
_Ironically, they attract…_

_Author: And now things are really taking off! Was this Maze's entire plan? Or is it only part of something even bigger? What did Maze and Monkey Fist do to Ron and Rhonda? What will Kim do now that she has Grimm apparently at her mercy? So many riddles - so few answers! Don't miss what's coming next as both Kim and Grimm begin their search for a friend in darkness!_

Vote Team Probable in the 'Best Villain' category of the upcoming Golden Fannie awards  
(See Kim Possible Discussion forums here at fanfiction net)

_Character names in Blackfoot: (Courtesy of Laura Redish & Native Languages .org)  
Kim Possible: Mi'kksiistsikomma - (mick-seest-sih-kum-mah) 'Red Thunder'.  
Rhonda Fatigable: Katasistsikoowa - (Kah-tah-sist-sih-koh-wah) 'Never Gets Tired'.  
Grimm Probable: Otaatoyiwa - (Oh-tah-ah-to-yi-wah) 'Cunning Fox'.  
Monkey Fist: Maokiiwa - (Mau-key-wah) 'Monkey'.  
Maze: Sskipoyiwa - (Sis-key-poh-yi-wah) 'Stands in Darkness'_

_A very special thank you goes to the Native American Languages website and the resident webmaster Laura Redish and her associates for their wise assistance in making the Blackfoot chants and character names._

_To reach the Native American Languages website links from (which for some reason doesn't 'show' web link in text), simply do a google search for 'Native American Languages' or for 'Laura Redish'. Their website is a treasure trove of knowledge - well worth studying..._


	8. Ch 7: Opposites

A Friend In Darkness  
All Things Probable 3  
A Kim Possible Fanfiction

by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and its affiliates, etc. etc.

Chapter 7  
Opposites

_Or: Opposites Repel_

Kim stormed up to the trussed-up Grimm, taking one coil of the wire that was binding him in her hand and pulling so his face was level with hers. She balled her other hand into a fist. 'What did you do to Ron?' she snarled.

Grimm seemed to snap out of his own shock and his hazel eyes stared into hers, switching from surprised to angry. 'I didn't do this, you _idiot_!' he shouted, shifting in the cocoon of wires that bound him.

Kim sniffed. 'Like I believe _that_!' she said. 'Spill it, or I start playing Viva Piñata with your head!'

'I _said_ I didn't do it!' he growled at her. 'Now hurry up and untie me before they get too far away!'

Kim shook her head. 'Untie you?' she said, a smirk edging onto her lips, 'Grimm - you've made me cry, you've made me compromise my principles, you've made me scream with rage - _don't make me laugh._'

Grimm's eyes narrowed and he spoke through gritted teeth. 'There's still a chance we can catch up to them.' he said, his voice sounding frustrated. He twitched in his wire prison again. 'The longer you sit around whining, the further away they get!'

'I'm not setting a snake like you on the loose again!' Kim said, letting go and watching with grim amusement as he swung helplessly above the floor. 'I'll find Ron myself - the cops can take care of you!' She turned and started walking away.

'You'll never find him without my help.' Grimm's voice called after her. 'The guy helping Monkey Fist is called Maze - he's a shadow shaman, and he has powers that you don't know anything about.'

'I'll _learn_.' said Kim firmly, continuing towards the door.

'I'm _serious_. You've got no idea what you're in for. You want to find Ron? I can help you - so stop thinking with your ego make use of the resources you have!'

Kim paused and looked back at him. 'That's the first thing you've said that makes sense.' she answered, and she held up her wrist Kimmunicator. It was beeping with several lights as she saw that it was working again. Whatever effect had been jamming it now seemed to be lifted. She activated it and Wade's face popped up at once.

'Kim what happened?' he said. 'I've been trying to get through for ages...'

'Wade - contact the police and send them to the UNIT building pronto! Tell them another gift-wrapped villain is waiting to be picked up.'

Wade's face fell in surprise and he looked impressed. 'Was it Grimm? Did you _get_ him?'

Kim paused, looking down at her helpless enemy, who was glaring at her darkly. 'Yeah.' she said.

'They're on their way!' said Wade, tapping his keyboard almost merrily. 'Someone locked the front entrance again, but I'll have it back open before the cops get there. Sounds like cause for a Naco celebration! Hey, where's Ron?'

Kim frowned, not sure what to say. 'Stand by on that.' she said quietly, and turned off the screen.

Grimm was still glaring as Kim started walking away. 'You're making a mistake.' he said. His face and his voice didn't betray any nervousness, but he jerked his arms hard against the wires that were wound around him, making him swing slightly from the cable holding him up. 'Whatever they did with Ron, they also did to Rhonda. We _both_ have a stake in this. If we put our heads together, maybe we can bring them back!'

'Not interested.' Kim said, frowning. 'Help like _yours_ I can do without.'

'We've gone up against Maze before.' said Grimm, fidgeting in the wires. He had spun half way around so he wasn't facing Kim anymore, and was twisting his neck to keep her in sight. She would have laughed at the sight, but she had other things to worry about. 'We know things about him - and Monkey Fist! You have information _we_ don't have, and we have information _you_ don't have - things even your hacker can't find out on his own!'

'That just says I have more faith in Wade than you have in Jade.' Kim said, and Rufus scampered after her, turning and sticking out his tongue. They left the lab, Kim closing the door behind her.

'_Possible!'_ Grimm's voice grated, rising almost to a shout.

Kim strode away from the room, feeling immensely satisfied. Whatever happened afterwards, at least she had finally dealt with Grimm. His words nagged at her - they always did - but she had meant it when she said she had faith in Wade. He had never let her down. He could hack his way anywhere, and any information that Grimm might have, she was confident that Wade could find it too.

She paused as she felt a tugging at the cuff of her pants and saw Rufus looking up at her pleadingly. She felt a sudden stab of loss. Ron and Rufus had their routine down to an art form, and without him there, she was forced to try and remember the list of tasks that she had memorized back when she was Rufus-sitting.

'Sorry Rufus.' she said. 'I don't have cargo pants like Ron does - there's no pocket for you to ride in.' Rufus looked miserable. Kim glanced at her hip pouch. She wasn't sure why she always wore it. Her new Kimmunicator had a grapple line built into it, so the pouch was empty most of the time. She unsnapped it and held out her hand to the mole rat. 'Guess you'll have to crash in here until we find him.' Rufus paused, eyeing the hip pouch warily, but he scampered up her leg and hopped into the pouch, looking like someone in a new and unfamiliar place. Kim bit her lip as she saw him circle around in the pouch as if looking for something that was missing. 'Don't worry.' she said, trying to sound reassuring. 'We'll find out what they did to him and we'll have him back before you know it.' She moved towards the annex where the elevator was located, anxious for the police to arrive so she could turn Grimm into custody...

Grimm dangled from the wires in the lab, still glaring at the door where Kim had left. He heard a sudden beeping from his pocket - his communicator was working again. He twisted in the coils and finally managed to loosen the bands that held his wrists together. Then he slithered an arm to his communicator, turning it on. He heard Jade's tinny voice. 'GP! What happened? I've been trying to get through to you for almost half an hour...'

'Jade!' he said angrily, 'Monkey Fist - _banned_!'

Jade took a sucker out of her mouth. 'Huh?' she said. 'Monkey Fist? I thought he was M.I.A...'

'He's back somehow - and he's working with _Maze_.' He continued to squirm in the wires, trying to free up more slack.

'The guy from Kwitcherbeliakin? Didn't Rhonda hand him his dignity with her footprints all over it? And where the heck _are_ you?' She tilted her head, trying to see why he was rotating in a small circle, and why he wasn't holding the screen more steady.

'Never mind,' he grunted, finally getting both hands in front of him. 'The more important matter is where the heck is Rhonda? Maze pulled some of his shadow-medicine. Both Rhonda and Possible's sidekick upped and disappeared right in front of us.'

Jade's mouth fell open. 'She's _gone_?'

'Yeah - I think I managed to record Maze's chant on my wristwatch during the fight - and I'm sweeping the room with the scanners as we speak. When I get back, we'll need translations, analysis, and we also need to find out why he and Monkey Fist are chumming it up! I'll be back soon.' He turned off the communicator.

Rueful was scurrying around underneath Grimm, hopping on his hind legs. 'Stand back little guy,' Grimm said. Then he folded back the cuff on his glove and hit a button on his wristwatch. A pencil-thin beam of red light shot from a module on the side...

The elevator door opened and four burly policemen strode briskly towards Kim. She was glad to see them, being anxious to start Wade on scanning the lab, but she wanted to make sure Grimm was locked up before turning her attention to finding Ron. She hadn't heard anyone leaving and was still close to the door leading back into the lab where Grimm was securely tied.

'Right in here, boys!' she said pointing them to the lab. The policemen stormed into the room with Kim right behind them.

'Uh... right here _what_ Ms. Possible?' said the tallest cop. Kim shouldered her way past them and saw a mass of severed wires hanging from the ceiling, still swaying gently, holding nothing but empty air.

* * *

Maze staggered into the upper floor of an abandoned building. Rubbish was strewn here and there on the floor and there was an occasional piece of dusty furniture - mournful remains of whatever business had once been located within its walls. Maze's breath came in deep, ragged gasps. Monkey Fist entered behind him and helped him over to a dark corner near a grimy window. A simple bed of scattered straw topped with a blanket was set up there, along with a small cache of supplies. He lowered Maze onto the bed and stepped back, looking down as his ally lay trembling and sweating before him.

They had scoped out this building in advance because it was near to the UNIT headquarters, derelict enough that they would not be disturbed and yet visible enough that they would not be noticed. Maze had warned Monkey Fist that if they succeeded in their scheme, he would be extremely weak and would need somewhere close by to recover.

'Do you require anything?' said Monkey Fist off-handedly, setting down the case which contained the UDM. 'Medicine? Water?'

Maze waved one hand feebly. 'No...' he said. 'I simply need rest. The shadow-medicine we used is extremely powerful. I would never have been able to complete the banishing without your strength. Your assistance removed some of the burden from my shoulders, giving me the power I needed to complete the banishing. Even so, the effort was... most painful. It could have killed me...'

'Then rest now.' said Monkey Fist, his stone lips curling into a faint smile. 'I will stand guard while you regain your strength. We can't risk moving until you have recovered enough to mask us with your shadows, and we can't proceed any further until we return to the lair. Though our enemies are defeated, our plans are only just beginning.'

Maze fell quiet and lay breathing deeply. Monkey Fist moved a few feet away and sat in the Lotus position, letting his mind focus. Tai Shing Pek Kwar was mostly mental discipline, as he always maintained. And he looked on this as an opportunity to practice that discipline while guarding Maze. It seemed unnecessary since they were the only ones there, but since he no longer felt weariness, he kept at it. Soon the only sounds were an occasional creaking, Maze's soft breathing, and the faint sounds of traffic and people moving around outside and in the surrounding buildings while the night moved towards dawn...

* * *

The police were still milling around the lab, inspecting the damage of the battle. Some had gone down to the security suite to tend to the recovering guards. Kim was staring at the blinking screen of her Kimmunicator. She didn't want to have to start this next conversation, but she had swept the labs several times and found no trace of Ron. She answered and saw Wade's face staring out, looking confused and concerned.

'Kim,' he said, his voice sounding suspicious. 'I just read a police wire. They said there's no sign of whoever broke in.'

'I know.' Kim said. 'I screwed up. I went out into the hall to lead the police to the labs, but when I got back he was gone. I thought he was tied securely enough that I'd hear it from the hall if he tried to pull free.'

Wade didn't look accusatory or frustrated as he raised his hands as if to start typing. 'Want me to see if I can start tracking them?' he said.

'No.' Kim answered quickly. 'As of now, Team Probable is off the table. I need you to shift focus to finding Ron.'

'Finding Ron?' said Wade, looking confused.

'Yeah... he's gone.'

'_Gone_?'

'Wade, I need you to scan the labs. There was someone here looking for Grimm and Rhonda. He said his name was Maze...'

'Mayze?' said Wade.

'No, _mah-zay_. I found him nosing around while I was looking for Grimm. He said he was a Blackfoot holy man and... well things got kind of fuzzy after that. The next thing I remember I was in the labs, and I saw Ron and Rhonda disappear...'

'_Disappear_?' Wade said.

'Wade, will you please stop repeating the last words of my sentences?'

'Sorry.' said Wade. 'But... people don't just _disappear_!'

'I know!' Kim said. 'Which is _why_ I need you to scan the lab!'

'Oh, yeah... Hold on a sec!' Kim held out her Kimmunicator and the greenish beam from the scanner swept out. Kim circled the lab several times, letting Wade go over everything twice. She waited for several minutes afterwards while Wade typed, his head spinning from monitor to monitor.

'Well...?' Kim said, feeling uncomfortable as some of the policemen sweeping the lab were beginning to stare at her.

Wade's mouth was pulled into a lopsided grimace. 'Uh... I'm not getting anything unusual Kim.' he said. 'Just the normal background radiation and activity on the electrical grid...'

Kim fought back the instinct to say _are you sure_. She knew Wade well enough to know that if there was something to double check, he would do it. But because she wanted to be doing something more, she couldn't stop herself from making suggestions. 'Is there anything I can do on this end?' she said. 'A... bigger scanner or something?'

Wade smiled faintly. 'The Kimmunicator scanners are among the best.' he said. 'Having designed it myself, I know. I'll chew on the data, but Grimm could have engineered the whole thing. It's not the first time he tried to get to you by getting to Ron. You're sure you don't want me to try and get a trace on Grimm?' he said hesitantly.

Kim shook her head. 'I don't think so.' she said. 'Whatever happened to Ron, it looked like the same thing happened to Rhonda. Grimm said he didn't do it.'

'You believe him?'

Kim paused. 'I... don't know.' she said at last. 'If it was a dodge, or if he was acting, it was a really _good_ act. And good isn't the sort of thing that comes easily when he's around. If the scanner data doesn't go anywhere, then we can start by finding out everything we can about Maze.' A sudden flash of memory came to her and she hastily added, 'And there's something else - I'm pretty sure I saw _Monkey Fist_ in the lab as well.'

Wade's jaw fell open. 'Monkey Fist? Cheese, was _everyone_ down there at UNIT tonight?'

Kim shrugged. 'It feels that way. We could also get information by contacting the Yamanouchi school to confirm if Monkey Fist is still walking the path of the Yono.'

'That... could be tricky.' said Wade. 'They're a ninja school, and they love their secrecy. Usually they're the ones who try to contact us...'

'Then now's as good a time as any to find out if they've got a phone.' said Kim. She felt a bit more focused now, having talked with Wade. They'd come up with several ideas for places to begin their search, and now it was a matter of doing the searching. She turned her attention back to the lab as the Kimmunicator screen went dark, preparing to search the room yet again...

It was nearly midnight before Kim finally left the UNIT building. She made her way back to the Sloth, checking on Rufus, who was sleeping in her belt pouch. She put the key in the ignition, checking in with Wade once more before getting ready to leave.

'... I went over everything with a fine tooth comb.' she said. 'Ron's just _gone_. One minute he was there, the next... nothing but empty space.'

Wade was shaking his head. 'It had to be some kind of portal technology,' he said. 'Except... you're sure _Monkey Fist_ was there?'

Kim put her hand to her head. Her memories of the events between when Maze was chanting in front of her and seeing Ron and Rhonda disappearing right in front of her were clouded. 'I'm almost sure he was, but... there was something different about him. It looked like he was still made of stone, but he was _moving_.'

Wade shook his head slightly. 'If he was really involved, then it limits the scope of what I can find out.' he said. 'Monkey Fist's plans deal in mysticism, not science. And magic isn't something I know a lot about... or study much... or _believe_ in.'

Kim looked sharply at him. 'Wade - it's _real_. I told you about what happened at Yamanouchi with the Yono, I _saw_ the Yono myself. I saw what the Lotus Blade can do when Ron's holding it. It wasn't just smoke and mirrors.'

Wade still looked skeptical. 'I... didn't see it myself.' he said.

'You may not believe in magic,' said Kim. 'But do you believe in _me_?'

Wade didn't answer, looking like he was thinking hard. 'I... don't think you're _lying_ about what you saw.' he said carefully. 'But you may not have seen what you thought you were seeing. There are all kinds of scientific ways that those things might have been done. Holograms, energy weapons, hypnotic suggestion... Monkey Fist could have set it up to make you _think_ it was magic...'

'Either way, he and Maze are our best place to start searching for Ron.' Kim said. She wasn't ready to start debating the existence or non-existence of magic with Wade, and was anxious to find out anything that Wade's searches might uncover, whether he 'believed' in it or not. 'Have you got anything?'

Wade turned back to his computer screens. 'Systems are still processing the data from the scanners, but I did find out some more about Maze - was this him?' And a black and white news photograph flashed up on the Kimmunicator screen. The man pictured was dressed more normally than he had been in the Labs, but the beak-like nose was there, and the mane of dark hair. He appeared to be speaking at some kind of rally.

'That's him.' Kim answered. 'Who _is_ he?'

Wade answered with his eyes on one of his screens, his face turned away from Kim. 'An expert on Native American artifacts and folklore, recognized as a leading specialist. He used to be active in trying to secure more legal and political rights for the Blackfoot tribe, but over the last ten years, he's spent most of his time alone searching for artifacts. He's recovered several famous relics, but he's passed up a lot of sweet job offers to stay out in the field.'

'Any former colleagues we could hunt up?' Kim said.

Wade shook his head again. 'He doesn't seem to have had many friends, at least none that are recorded. Here's something interesting though... within the last year he _sold_ a number of artifacts and seems to have vanished from public life completely. No one's seen or heard from him in months.'

Kim's eyes narrowed. 'No criminal record?' she said.

'Not that I can see.' Wade answered. 'Doesn't mean there _isn't_ one though...'

'How about Yamanouchi?' said Kim. Were you able to contact them?'

'Sorry.' he answered. 'I haven't been able to contact them before, and I still can't. I tried to trace the hits they put on your website, but it led me to If they have some means of communication, it's not_ normal_.'

'The Gravy Ghost.' said Kim quietly.

Wade's eyes perked. 'I forgot about that.' he said. 'Sensei seems to have some way to contact Ron...'

'...except Ron's not here.' said Kim grimly. 'All right. We try to track down Maze. In the meantime, I need to visit Yamanouchi and see for myself if Monkey Fist is really gone. I don't think the Sloth can get to Japan - can you find me a ride?'

'Wade smiled. 'I had a feeling we might start there.' he answered. 'It'll be hard, but I think I can get you transport by tomorrow after school.'

'Spankin.' Kim said. 'But I think the hardest part is still ahead.' said Kim, sighing.

* * *

Mr. and Mrs. Stoppable stared blankly at Kim. They had seemed nervous somehow when she awakened them in the middle of the night, and even more so when they saw Ron was not with her. 'Kidnapped?' said Mrs. Stoppable, her thin face with its triangular glasses stretching as her mouth fell open.

'It... looks that way.' said Kim, faltering. She hadn't been able to think of any other way to explain what had happened in the labs. Somehow _vanished without a trace_ sounded a lot more ominous, and until she had more information, Kim figured she had better try and phrase the events in terms that were easily related to and understandable.

'And that Monkey Fist character is behind it?' said Mr. Stoppable, adjusting his own glasses, his voice still sounding sonorous and soothing, even though his face was frowning and worried. 'The same one who came after our little Hana?'

'Yes, but I don't think Hana is in any danger right now...' Kim started.

'But what about our Ron?' Mrs. Stoppable said, her voice rising. 'Where did Monkey Fist take him? What does he want with him?'

'I... don't know yet, but I don't think they'll hurt him.' Kim said.

Mr. Stoppable nodded. 'Is there anything _we_ can do?' he said. 'I didn't mind going up against that Mather person to save my son - if we can help in any way...'

Kim shook her head. 'Right now it's not a question of fighting, it's a matter of _finding_. Wade's on that right now. I'm sure once we find Monkey Fist, we'll find Ron. I promise, I won't stop until he's home safe and sound - and I'll let you know the minute I have any news.'

Mrs. Stoppable was looking down as she spoke again. 'You've never let us down before, Kim.' she said, and her voice was low and worried. 'You've always looked out for Ron. When he disappeared that one time, you promised to bring him back and you did.' she looked up into Kim's eyes. 'Please - Ron thinks the world of you. I know you can find him again.'

Kim could only nod.

* * *

It was late and all was dark as the Possible house slept. Rufus seemed nervous and fidgety in the makeshift bed Kim had set up for him in her room, made from a long-unused basket and some warm cloth. He had tried using the pillow next to Kim's head, giving Pandaroo a puzzled look, but Kim had stared at him until he skittered to the basket, looking forlorn.

Wade had assured her that there was nothing more they could do until tomorrow, and encouraged Kim to get some rest. But like Rufus, Kim felt too energized for sleep. She wanted to rush out, to keep looking for Ron, to do something. And so sleep came very reluctantly. When she did drift off at last, she fell at once into an uneasy dream.

_Ron was being pulled away. He was sinking into a whirlpool of shadow. She wanted to help him, to stop what was happening. But there was an unwelcome grip on her mind, the dark will of someone else, who prevented her from rushing to his aid. Ron was disappearing, vanishing in the vortex of black vapor, and the last thing she saw was his hand reaching out to her..._

Kim was suddenly wide awake again. Ron's hand - covered in a glove, but even as he disappeared there had been a flash of white - from a band around his wrist. _The chip_. She sat bolt upright, fumbling in the dark for her wrist Kimmunicator. She berated herself. _'How could I have been so stupid?_' she thought.

And she remembered sitting across from Ron in a booth at Bueno Nacho. A small microchip, about half the size of a postage stamp, was resting on the table between them. Grimm had removed the chip and told Ron all about it before he had used the Attitudinator to turn him back into Zorpox. When it was all over, the resulting conversation between her and Ron about the chip had ranked as one of her all-time worst memories. But Ron, in typical _Ron-ness_, had forgiven her.

_'If you want me to put this chip back...' he said, looking down at it, '...I won't say no.'_

_'Get rid of it.' she answered. 'We don't need it anymore.' But later back at school, she had seen a white band on his wrist with a small chip protected in a durable plastic square._

_'Nice bracelet.' she said. 'Is that...'_

_'Yep.' said Ron, holding up his forearm. 'Now you can keep tabs on your bad boy 24/7.'_

_Kim shook her head. 'Ron, you don't have to...'_

_'I know.' he said, waving his hand softly. 'But I want to. You said you believe in me. That was all I needed, Kim. I'm keeping this now because I believe in you. I've always been there for you. And this is just my way of saying - I know you'll always be there for me...'_

'Wade!' Kim said, her voice sounding urgent even to her own ears. She knew she had connected with him, but it was a few seconds before Wade's face showed up, looking tousle-haired and bleary.

'Kim...?' he said, and his voice was slurred. 'What? It's almost three o'clock in the morning... I said there's nothing you can do until...'

'The _chip_!' she said. 'Ron had it on him when he disappeared! We can _track_ him!'

Wade looked more awake, and then he was typing rapidly. 'It's been a while since I monitored the tracking programs for him...' he said. 'We haven't used it all that much, really. I hope it still works...'

Kim was clenching the Kimmunicator hard in her hand. Hope flared powerfully within her as the seconds passed. If Ron was anywhere on Earth, the chip would let Wade zero in on him - then they would have an exact location. Once she knew where to go, it was just a matter of getting there, saving Ron and taking down the bad guys. Easy and simple - just like it always was.

Each second seemed to pass like a full minute. At last, Wade looked up. 'Sitch me!' she said urgently.

But Wade's face looked ashen. 'Kim... I'm sorry. I'm not getting any signal.' And as quickly as the hope had risen in her heart, it was snatched and replaced with the lead-like heaviness of disappointment. Wade caught the expression on her face and reacted quickly. 'There... could be a lot of reasons for that.' he said, his voice sounding only slightly reassuring. 'They could have jammers set up wherever he is, or maybe the chip is malfunctioning - it's over four years old after all. Or maybe sunspots...'

Kim listened as Wade went through several more reasons, each sounding less plausible, before she finally broke in. 'Thanks Wade.' she said softly. 'Thanks for trying. I thought maybe...' but her voice faltered.

There was an uncomfortable silence. 'I'll... leave the tracking programs running.' he said. 'There's a chance the signal may resume... or maybe it's intermittent...'

'Yeah.' said Kim, almost whispering. 'Please and thank you.'

* * *

Kim heard the bell at Middleton High ringing with a metallic echo, the sound rolling across the wide grounds that surrounded the building. She sighed and walked in through the door, glancing aside at the marquee, which read: _'Exams - you never know what you've got till it's wrong'_.

No sooner had she stepped inside than she heard a booming shout. _'Stoppab...!'_ Mr. Barkin's voice was cut off as he stopped in mid-yell. He looked at Kim and then next to her. 'Possible!' she said, recovering. 'Where's the trouble-maker king?'

Kim closed her eyes, the question cutting through her more keenly than she thought. With no more information, she tried to resolve herself to the fact that she'd be trying to answer this question, or variations of it, for some time to come.

'And what have I told you about wearing that _mission_ equipment of yours in school?' he said, not giving her time to answer the first question but pointing down at her hip pouch, which was strapped to her leg and looking very out of place with her normal school clothes.

'I need it to carry Rufus.' Kim said, opening the pouch. Rufus sprang out, waving at Mr. Barkin. 'Ha-hey!' he squeaked.

'Very _cute_, Ms. Possible.' he said, his voice sinking to a dangerous growl. 'Going all Paris Hilton are you? I thought it was those pocket pooches that ladies stash in their purses these days when they're trying to look hip. Why are you carrying around that freak of nature?'

Kim stared up at him. At least with Mr. Barkin, she knew how to explain the sitch in terms he'd understand. 'Ron went M.I.A on a mission last night. I'm looking after Rufus until we find him.'

'Is that so?' said Barkin, raising an eyebrow, but the rest of his face remained scowling and suspicious. 'And you're sure he's not just trying to duck out of the homework I've got ready for him?'

Kim tried not to get defensive. After all, ducking out to avoid homework _was_ something Ron might try to do. 'I'm sure.' she said softly. 'Wade and I are trying to track him down...'

'I see.' said Barkin. 'Well I'm afraid that means _you_ will now have to collect his assignments for him and store them until such time as he resurfaces.'

'Yes sir.' Kim answered.  
'And I'll expect him to turn in said assignments _on time_.'  
'Yes sir.' she said again.  
'And he'll be on makeup practice time for the team as well when he gets back.'  
'Yes sir.' Kim said yet again.  
'And don't expect me to cover for him at Smarty-Mart for very long...'  
'Yes sir.'

Barkin seemed taken aback by her compliance and looked at her quietly for a moment. 'Well, carry on then.' he said, and then turned and walked away.

Rufus let out a low groan. 'Mmm-hmmm... _homework_.' he squeaked, sounding crestfallen.

She was at her locker barely a minute later, and Wade was waiting for her on the monitor screen. 'I've gone over the scanning data a dozen times.' he said. 'So far, nothing. If it was portal technology, it's like nothing I've ever seen before.'

'Keep at it, if you think there's any chance it could tell us something.' said Kim. 'In the meantime, there's still Yamanouchi. Have you got a ride lined up?'

Wade smiled and nodded. 'Be at the airport after school and everything will be set up.'

_'Yo, Kim!'_

Kim thanked Wade quickly and turned to answer the voice that had sounded behind her. She heard a whirring sound and saw Felix moving smoothly down the hall in his high-tech wheelchair. She had a momentary feeling that mixed several emotions. There was discomfort, because Felix was Ron's best guy friend and he was sure to ask where Ron was. Dread, because she wasn't sure what she should tell him, and deep in the back of her mind a twinge of impatience because all she wanted to do was get to class and get the day over with so she could begin her trip to Yamanouchi. 'Hey Felix...' she said, putting up a brave smile and waving weakly.

And right off the bat, he threw it in her face. 'Where's Ron? Haven't seen him yet, and if he's not with _you_ I don't know where he is.' he said, looking at her with an expression just short of sly.

Kim hemmed for a moment. She wasn't sure how many times she could bear relating the experience in a single day. 'I'm... not sure.' she said, which she felt was a vague enough answer while still being true.

But Felix's eye went to her hip pouch, where Rufus was still poking his head out and looking around. His expression became suspicious at once. 'Why are you carrying Rufus around?' he said. 'Kim? Where's Ron?'

'I...' she started to answer, but at that moment the warning bell rang. 'I... gotta get to class!' she said, hoisting her backpack and going into a slow run. 'Catch you later!' But Felix was staring after her, even as she turned the corner.

She sighed with relief as she sit down to her first class of the day, Intermediate Algebra. Felix was in Advanced Calculus, so she wouldn't see him again until lunch. By then she hoped to have steeled up the nerve to tell him. It was the first time ever she had been _relieved_ to be in Algebra.

Monique was already there and smiled as Kim took her seat just in time. 'Cuttin' it rather close, aren't you girlfriend?' she said quietly, smiling but keeping her eyes on the chalkboard where the teacher was already writing several equations to work through.

'That's how I like it.' Kim said, trying to look cheerful. The teacher turned and glared back at both of them, and they settled into silence under her withering glare. Things sank into normality as the clock ticked and the lesson progressed. About halfway through, Kim felt a rustling in her hip pouch. Rufus had poked his head out again. He was pointing to the clock, and then to his mouth, and waving a rumpled-looking piece of paper.

Kim tried to surreptitiously reach into her backpack. She took out a small tub containing a number of Pop Pop Porter's Mini Corn Dogs. She gave one to Rufus and he disappeared back into the hip pouch, a soft chewing sound coming from it a second later. Kim folded the paper and slid it into her pocket. She had condensed Ron's old instruction book on Rufus-Sitting into one handy spreadsheet, but she had forgotten exactly how 'needy' Rufus was. She reflected briefly for moment, wondering if Ron had trained Rufus or if it was the other way around.

She heard a whisper from Monique's desk. '_Why are you packing a naked mole rat, girl?'_

And once again, Kim was spared from answering as the teacher rounded on them. 'Ms. Monique!' she snapped. 'Unless you are _answering_ this equation, I will thank you to remain silent in this class!'

Monique shrank slightly in her seat. 'Yes, Ms. Merical.' she mumbled. And under her breath she added. _'Not very merry-cal.'_

'_What_ was that Ms. Monique?' Merical said, her voice rising.

'Nothing!' Monique answered.

'For that matter, Ms._Monique_ - would you please fill out the _surname_ on your future assignments?'

'I can do that.' she answered. 'If you'll tell me how to get Planck's Constant higher than one.'

Ms. Merical looked coldly at her for a moment. 'Touche.' she said at last, and turned back to the board.

For the rest of the morning, Kim managed to avoid both Felix and Monique with a combination of looking busy and actual dodging. But there was no avoiding lunch break, which was highlighted in red on Rufus' care list. It was pizza day, and Rufus would not be denied. She took as many slices as the lunch lady would allow, and made her way to a free table where she took Rufus from her pouch and pushed every slice over to him.

Rufus tucked in at once, and Kim was momentarily fascinated. It always seemed as if Rufus could eat more food than he should physically be able to contain, and the naked mole rat had gone through a whole slice before she turned her attention to her salad. She had barely taken a bite though, before hearing a _thumping_ sound by the seat next to her and a whirring sound at her other side.

Both Monique and Felix had flanked her and were staring at her, their expressions less than congenial. 'All right, spill it girlfriend.' said Monique without any preamble. 'Where's Ron at?'

Kim swallowed and sighed. Rufus was well into his second slice of pizza. 'Guys, look - I'm sorry I've been giving you the runaround.' Rufus paused, and looked at her sadly. 'I've got something to tell you, and I've been racking my brains trying to think of the best way...'

At that moment, Mr. Barkin walked by, dropping a thick booklet next to Kim's elbow. 'Sorry to hear that Ron has gone missing, Ms. Possible.' he said briskly. 'To demonstrate my sympathies, his first wave of extra homework has one less page than normal.' Then he walked off. Felix and Monique sat with their mouths open and their eyes wide.

'Well, there's always the direct approach.' she said darkly.

_'Missing?'_ they both said together, leaning their heads in. Felix wasn't able to get quite as close since his chair couldn't pull up under the table fully, and he craned his neck with dangerous enthusiasm. Then Kim felt like the referee in a tennis match, looking back and forth between the two as they ran the gamut of questions which covered _how, when, where _and _why_.

It wasn't exactly the place she would have chosen to break the news; a room full of students chowing down on their meals, the faint smell of old mystery meat in the air and Rufus stuffing his face on cardboard cafeteria pizza. But she went through it again while Monique and Felix moved around to sit at the table in front of her. Their faces retained the shocked expression during her whole narrative about the events at the UNIT building, and her efforts to begin the search. She kept a firm grip on the table, fighting to stop herself from interjecting her own feelings and worry. The last thing they needed was to hear the person was supposed to be leading the search getting all emotional.

'...so after school I'll be going to Japan to see what I can find out about Monkey Fist.' she said, winding down. 'Until then I'm kind of stuck.' She turned to Monique, her voice becoming hesitant. 'Could I ask you a favor?' she started.

Monique sighed heavily. 'Let me guess - _could you cover for me at work?_' she said. 'Girl, just because I'm assistant manager now doesn't mean you can bog off anytime you want...'

'It's _important_, Monique!' Kim said. Then she dropped her voice to a girlish whimper. '_Pleeeeeeeeeease...?_'

'Oh _no_!' said Monique holding up her hand. 'Girl, you are _not_ using that on _me_!'

Kim's pupils dilated. Her eyebrows rose, and her lower lip curled out slightly.

'Don't!' Monique said, panic rising in her voice. 'I'm warning you!'

Kim put her hands together, holding them down to her waist, and pulled her shoulders up. '_Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease_?' she said again, batting her eyes.

Monique bent forward, collapsing onto the table and slamming both fists down. 'Aaaaaargh!' she said. 'All right, all right! Just... _stop that_!'

'Please and thank you!' said Kim, reverting to normal posture at once.

Felix had watched the whole thing with wide eyes. 'What... _was_ that?' he said, glancing nervously at Kim.

Monique was sitting up again, looking reproachful. 'The Puppy-Dog-Pout.' she said. 'A weapon of psychological warfare among Possible women for at least two generations.'

'Is there a countermeasure?' Felix asked.

'Not if you've got eyes.' said Monique.

Felix shook his head slightly. 'I always wondered how you got Ron to go on some of those crazy missions...' he said. He looked up at Kim, his face looking more serious. 'Kim, he's my best bud. _Find_ him, would you?'

Kim looked equally serious. 'Try and stop me.' she said, and her voice had a steely edge to it.

Felix nodded, but he looked away, seeming embarrassed. 'And uh... could you find him_ fast_?' he said, running his hand up the back of his neck. 'There's something he and I need to discuss.'

There was something about his demeanor that drew Kim's curiosity. '_Discuss_?' she said. 'Guys don't discuss things - they just _say_ stuff. They only discuss...' and she gasped. 'It's about a girl!' she said, and at once Felix' cheeks flamed red.

Monique went from sulky to eager in the blink of an eye, pouncing on the information like a cat on a mouse. 'Who is it? _Spill_!'

'I'm... thinking about asking out Zita Flores.' he said, looking bashful and unaccountably guilty.

Monique squealed. 'Feliiiiix!' she chirped. 'That is so _cool_!'

'But why do you need to discuss it with Ron?' Kim asked.

Felix looked away as he answered. 'Well, I know you and Ron are a thing now. But he did go out with her a couple of times, so I just... want to make sure he's OK with it.'

Rufus had his paws together and was smiling, doing the 'rah-rah' gesture. Kim smiled. 'Somehow I think... he'd say go for it.' Kim answered.

* * *

By the time the final bell rang, Kim was almost frantic to get out the doors. Mr. Barkin had given her three more packets of homework for Ron to do, and Rufus had gone through all of the corn dogs. She checked in with Wade, packed everything in her book bag and closed her locker. She looked towards the gym and let out one shuddering breath of distaste. Before she left there was one more little chore...

Bonnie Rockwaller was already in uniform for practice. She stopped in front of the mirror, checking her face, her hair and her makeup for the seventh time. She noted one hair was out of place in the lock that draped over the left side of her forehead. She stared, trying to smooth it back into place, but it kept sticking back out.

She glared at the hair angrily, then took it with her thumb and forefinger, squeezing it hard. With a swift motion, she pulled it out of her scalp by the root, ignoring the sharp pain that followed. She looked at the hair as it waved feebly in the air between her fingers.

_'No use begging for mercy now.'_ she thought. _'You had your chance!'_ Then she dropped the hair into the trash can under the girls locker room sinks. She checked her reflection. Everything seemed perfect. She looked hard at the rest of the hairs on her head. 'Let that be a lesson to the _rest_ of you!' she said darkly. Then in the mirror, she saw a movement behind her. Kim Possible had come in and was looking at her warily.

Bonnie turned and stared back at her in silence for a few seconds. The two rivals had never had much to say to each other. After the incident with Dementor's Bond-O balls, Kim had acted like the experience was supposed to have made them into _chums_ or something. As if getting strapped to a giant electrostatic generator and nearly being vaporized was some kind of soul-weaving technique. More silence followed, until Bonnie went from staring to glaring. _'What_?' she said. 'Looking for make up tips so you can finally get yourself looking halfway decent?'

Kim didn't reply. She simply looked at Bonnie, her eyes more focused than normal. Bonnie sighed and turned back to the mirror, picking up her poms. 'Hurry up and get dressed, _loser_.' she growled. 'Everyone else is already out there.' She was just about to brush past Kim and go out onto the gym floor when Kim finally spoke.

'Bonnie, you're in charge of practice today.' she said flatly. Bonnie raised an eyebrow. Kim seemed to be wincing as she continued. 'And... depending on things, I may need you to head up practice for a few days.'

Bonnie's lips curled into an insolent smirk and she felt as if Christmas had come early. 'What's the matter, Kim?' she said, a teasing sing-song tone creeping into her voice. 'Pressure getting to you? Need someone a little more rock solid to show you how its done?'

Kim's expression wasn't angry or defensive. It was cold. So cold that Bonnie felt her smirk disappearing as quickly as it had come. 'Ron's missing.' she said, her voice equally cold. 'I have to find him.'

Bonnie didn't tease her again, but she felt a stab of frustration. 'Again?' she said. 'Kim, can't you keep your loser boyfriend from getting lost for one week? Dibble was right - just being around you is a menace...'

Kim took one step closer to Bonnie. 'Do you remember what happened the last time Ron went missing?' she said.

Bonnie flinched. Under the influence of Zorpox's Mega Synaptic Transducer, all her evil and good had been reversed. Everyone else in the city had thought they were super-villains and started cooking up schemes to take over the world. But she had become a pathetic goody-two-shoes who had fawned over Kim, declaring that she was her best friend. _'Yes_.' she said grudgingly.

'And do you remember what I said when you started getting all snarky about it the last time you asked?'

Bonnie's eyes slitted. 'You_ said_ something?' she answered sarcastically. 'It was more like you turned into a rabid wombat. As I recall, you told me to 'can it'...'

Kim's eyes slitted just at thin. They were standing right in front of each other now, and the tension was palpable. 'I'm going away to find Ron. And if you make it any harder with your attitude, then you should know that 'rabid wombat' was only stage _one_ of how mad I can get.' Then she turned and left without another word.

Bonnie stayed there for a full minute after Kim had left. She looked down and was ashamed to see that both of her hands were trembling. She gritted her teeth. 'What's with_ you _two?' she said, addressing her hands. 'Pull yourselves together, you make me sick...'

* * *

Kim hiked up the dizzying trail that led to the mountain sanctuary of Yamanouchi. The scenery was breathtaking, with mountains of yellowish-brown stone, azure blue waterfalls and fountains, and the soothing green of many groves of trees with bamboo thickets. In all her previous visits to Yamanouchi, she had always been too focused on missions to take time out and appreciate the beauty of the Japanese countryside. But traveling there alone (except for Rufus, who remained sheltered in her hip pouch), she found herself noticing these previously ignored details.

The ride to Japan had gone smoothly. Wade had found another one of Nakasumi's hypersonic jets that was making a return flight to Japan. It was more of a cargo plane, so there wasn't any first class seating, but it was fast, and currently that was all Kim cared about. It was not long after her arrival that she set out for the hidden valley of peaks where the Yamanouchi school was nestled. She reached the last summit and the school came into view. There was still some scaffolding here and there, but it looked as if most of the buildings had been rebuilt after the destruction unleashed by the Yono.

She made her way across the rope bridge towards the school entrance. She did notice one feature in the courtyard, visible even behind the high stone walls that surrounded the school - the Yono shrine had resurfaced. And there was only one way it could have happened... She broke into a run, dashing towards the ornate doors when she heard a voice shout suddenly.

_'Yamero!'_

She looked up towards the battlements of the front gate and saw a person silhouetted against the sky, staring down at her. The voice spoke again. 'Possible-chan?'

Even after so much time, Kim remembered the voice - having crushed over it once before. 'Hirotaka?' she called back up.

The ninja heart-throb nodded. He turned, looking back into the courtyard, and spoke to someone who she couldn't see from outside the walls. Then he turned back to her. 'Welcome back to Yamanouchi, Possible-chan.' he said. 'Your arrival was not unexpected. Please enter - Master Sensei and Yori are waiting for you.'

The massive gates set in the stone walls soon began to open, a shuddering creak sounding through the air. Kim passed through the gates and into the courtyard. Several practice sessions were underway in different sections of the courtyard, but dominating the scene was the ugly hulk of the Yono shrine. It was surrounded by a grim clutch of uniformed ninja, who stood with weapons ready.

Kim reached one of the larger dojos near the center of the courtyards, and saw two figures emerging from the doorway, descending the stone stairs towards her. Kim bowed her head to Sensei as he stopped in front of her. He seemed the same as ever, his bearded face and his perpetually squinting eyes looking relaxed and curious. His red robes with golden trim swathed over him, covering everything but his wooden sandals.

And as always, Yori was at his side. She looked at Kim, her expression unreadable. Kim had long suspected, despite saying she believed Ron and Kim were destined for each other, that she was still harboring a secret crush on Ron.

'Kim Possible.' said Sensei, his deep, resonating voice. 'We are honored by your presence - though I fear the circumstances behind your journey are as grave now as they were when you fought alongside us against the Yono.'

Kim looked at him. Sensei had always gave the impression that he had secret information, though he rarely disclosed it. 'Then you know _why_ I'm here?' she said.

'The answer to that question lies plainly before us all.' he answered, his head turning slightly towards the Yono shrine.

Kim followed his glance to look at the apex of the shrine. The long metal rod with it's heavy ring jutted from the stone platform at the very top. But there was no stone figure standing before it. 'Monkey Fist... he's _gone_ isn't he?' Kim said.

Sensei nodded. 'It happened several weeks ago. And I suspect you are here because Monkey Fist has struck again.'

Kim looked pleadingly at Sensei. 'You... _knew_ that someone had released Monkey Fist? You _knew_ he was on the loose?'

Sensei nodded.

'Why didn't you have someone _tell_ me?' she said.

Sensei looked surprised. 'This _is_ my way of telling you, Kim Possible.' he said.

Kim put her hand to her forehead, and for a moment she _knew_ exactly how Ron felt. She knew how it felt to be suddenly hammered with information that everyone was somehow expecting you to have known in advance through clairvoyance. 'OK...' she said, struggling to keep her temper. 'I need to know _everything_. Tell me how it happened, who set him loose, and anything else that I may need to know, and _please_ don't assume I know it already...'

'The exact circumstances are unclear...' and Sensei gestured to Hirotaka, who had stood nearby. Hirotaka stepped forward. '...but Hirotaka may be able to provide some of the answers you seek.'

They entered the dojo and sat on the matted floor. Kim listened as Hirotaka related his encounter with Maze, her feeling of worry increasing as he finished. '...I only remember ordering him to leave the grounds.' he said. 'The next thing I recall, I was standing at the foot of the shrine, trying to stop them from escaping.' He looked slightly ashamed for a moment. 'I fought well, but Monkey Fist was...' and he paused, as if not knowing what to say.

'What?' said Kim. 'Did the Yono come back too?'

'I... do not think so.' Hirotaka answered. 'Monkey Fist... was still made of stone. He moved, fought and spoke, but... he was not flesh and bone. I was unable to stop him. He and the man who freed him disappeared.'

'And this man - what did he look like?' Kim said anxiously.

Hirotaka shrugged as if trying to remember foggy details. 'He was concealed in shadows. But I remember he was tall, and thin... and he bore a staff...'

Kim felt her fingers clenching. 'His name is Maze. He and Monkey Fist... _did_ something to Ron. He's disappeared.' And she shared her tale of what had happened in the UNIT labs, as much of it as she could recall. When she described exactly how Ron and Rhonda had vanished, Sensei's face became worried, and the wrinkles that were hidden by his normally relaxed demeanor suddenly became prominent. Yori's face fell in shock.

'This news does not bode well.' said Sensei, shaking his head. 'Stoppable-san is the chosen one - destined to wield the Mystical Monkey Power and do great deeds.'

'Do you know... or can you _guess_ where they took him? I have to find him somehow.' Kim said, unable to voice the possibility that Ron's disappearance was anything more sinister than some kind of teleportation.

'Alas, no.' said Sensei. 'I have never heard of anything like what you described to us, Possible-chan. It is mysticism of the kind we do not study at Yamanouchi.'

'Then... can I look around?' Kim said. 'If they did something to Ron, maybe they can_un_do it! If there are any clues here that might show me where Monkey Fist is hiding...'

Sensei looked doubtful. 'Our most skilled ninja have sifted every inch of the courtyard, and the shrine, and the area surrounding the school.' he said. All we found was this.' And from his sleeve, he took out a yellowing scroll of parchment.

Sensei handed it to her and she looked it over. She saw the strange monkeyish symbols and sections of the parchment that looked like drawings of landmarks. She held up her Kimmunicator. 'Wade?' she said, holding up the parchment. 'Look this over with the scanner - seem familiar?'

There was a pause while the scanner beam swept over the parchment with a mechanical hum. 'Sure does.' said Wade. This is the first half of the scroll that Monkey Fist used to find the original Yono shrine. He destroyed the second half at the museum.'

Kim sat in thought. 'Monkey Fist didn't have the scroll on him when he started walking the path of the Yono.' she said. 'Which means... Maze brought it with him when he came here to free Monkey Fist. Which means he must have gotten it from...'

'Monkey Fist's manor!' said Wade, snapping his fingers.

Kim looked eager again, with another solid lead to follow. 'How soon can you find me a ride?' she said.

Sensei's voice rose up. 'That will not be necessary, Possible-chan. The Yamanouchi school has many resources. We will arrange to have you taken to your next destination.'

Kim bowed her head. 'Thank you Sensei. You've been a great help.'

Sensei rose to his feet, and once he had fully stood up, Yori and Hirotaka rose as well. Kim stood too. 'It is our honor to aid you in your search for Stoppable-san.' he said. 'May good fortune follow your every footstep.'

'If I could ask one favor,' she said. 'Do you have... a phone number? In case I need to speak to you again...?'

Sensei smiled. 'Do not fear, Possible-chan. As with the matter of the Han, I will arrange for a means to contact you.'

It was only a few minutes later when a black helicopter rose from the courtyard of the ninja school and into the sky. Sensei watched as it dwindled into the distance before vanishing from sight, carrying Kim Possible with it. Yori looked at him. 'Master Sensei,' she said. 'Should we not send some of our students to aid in her search? I will go myself...'

Sensei shook his head. 'She will return here eventually, I think.' he said, and he looked back up at the grotesque form of the Yono shrine. 'For Kim Possible, I fear that the answers she truly seeks do not await her out there in the wide world... but within herself.'

* * *

Far away in the North American continent, nestled in the midst of a region of mountainous forests, there was a well-ordered camp with a complex of cabins and a set of docks by the shores of a nearby lake. A thin line that was clear of trees marked the only road, which threaded through the forests to the entrance of the camp.

Chief Sakituya entered his cabin after a long day. The sun was westering to twilight and the entire expanse of Kamp Kwitcherbeliakin seemed grayish blue as the light faded. It wasn't easy for a man of his age to maintain the camp. He had his aches and pains the same as anyone. But he had a deep connection to the land about him, which the camp was at one and at peace with, and this gave him the strength and the endurance to complete his daily tasks. He tended the fire in his fireplace, casting some sweet-smelling herbs onto the dancing flames.

But he was not totally alone. As he sat down to rest and meditate, a hulking furry mass squeezed through the door. A huge grizzly bear let out a weary-sounding growl and pushed the door closed behind him with his snout before circling on the floor in front of the Indian chief and lying down.

Sakituya smiled. 'I do not blame you, _Ikkinikinsstiwa_.' he said. 'The nights are still cold, and your cabin has no fire. Stay as long as you wish, if you feel you can endure the snores of a tired old man.'

Gentle Paw snorted once before his massive body seemed to relax on the fur rug beneath him.

Chief Sakituya also relaxed and let his mind drift into the dream-like state between memory and reality. He sang, his voice sounding softly in the cabin. His words rose and fell in a musical chant, speaking words of past beauty, of present struggles, and the unknown future.

But his meditations came to a sudden end as he heard a noise outside, the distant, shrill cry of an eagle. Gentle Paw raised his head, rolling and sitting up on his haunches. Several more seconds passed in absolute silence.

'We have visitors, old friend...' said the Indian Chief.

At that moment, the door to his cabin opened, and the thin, lithe figure of a teenage boy with auburn hair stood on the threshold.

'Chief Sakituya.' said Grimm, his voice heavy and strained, 'I need your help.'

Coming Soon:  
Chapter 8

_Though teenagers are always telling everyone else to get one,  
they rarely have one themselves...  
What is it?_


	9. Ch 8: Clue

A Friend In Darkness  
All Things Probable 3  
A Kim Possible Fanfiction  
by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")  
Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and its affiliates, etc. etc.

Chapter 8  
Clue  
_Or: Kim Possible - In the Study - With the Candlestick_

Kim sat in the back of another hypersonic jet. The helicopter at Yamanouchi had taken her straight to an airport, where the jet had been waiting, along with two ninja pilots. The dedication of the Yamanouchi students was funny at times - even though the pilots were uniformed and wearing flight helmets, they still kept on their ninja hoods. And Kim had a slight surprise during the flight when another ninja seemed to pop up out of nowhere, poised as if to attack. But his hands blurred quickly into his billowing sleeves, whipping out a small bag of peanuts and a can of soda which he presented to Kim, who took them warily.

'Secret ninja refreshments - great.' said Kim, nodding to the ninja, who bowed and vanished as quickly as he had appeared.

The trip from Japan to England took several hours, in which Kim touched base with Wade. 'So... what will you do if you _find_ Monkey Fist at the manor?' he said.

'Same as usual.' said Kim confidently. 'Bust up whatever racket he's got going, make him bring Ron back and then cart him off to jail.'

'You make it sound easy.' said Wade, looking nervous.

'Always is!' said Kim, smiling. And she meant it. As long as there was a clear path in front of her, she'd never worried about what villains might be at the end of it. She could do anything, a fact which none of her enemies seemed to 'get'.

'And the stone thing?' said Wade. 'Hirotaka's no slouch at martial arts - but he said Monkey Fist beat him easy.'

Kim's eyes glinted. 'If he's made of stone, it just means he'll break easier.' she said. 'Remember we took on a whole gang of gargoyles at the second key shrine, and they're all gravel now.'

Wade smiled. 'Just remember to get him to bring Ron back _before_ you turn him into grit for the driveway.'

'Don't worry.' Kim said, her voice more serious. 'Whatever he did to Ron, by the time I'm finished with him, he'll be begging to undo it.' She shut off the Kimmunicator and sat tapping her heels, checking her chute and waiting for the ninja pilots to signal that they were at the drop point.

* * *

The cavernous lair was silent, with only an occasional falling pebble interrupting the quiet which filled the high chambers. The banks of computers and the devices connected to them whirred quietly about their tasks.

From the tunnel-like entrance, there came an approaching sound of heavy footsteps. Two statues that stood on either side of the entrance ground their heads on their stone necks as the footsteps became louder and closer.

Monkey Fist entered the cavern. His stone arms supported the thin, nearly limp form of Maze, who staggered weakly to the rough furniture near the computer station. He sat down in one of the carved chairs, letting out a great sigh. He let his staff fall next to him and leaned his head back, his eyes closed.

Monkey Fist looked at him quietly for a moment, then he strode to the table where the Overthruster, the Transmat and the Harmonicizer sat connected and humming. He opened the case containing the Universal Decryption Matrix and carefully took it out, setting it next to the other devices.

He then labored in silence, consulting manuals and books before he connected the UDM to the hub which linked the other devices together. He tried activating the device several times, fiddling with wires, ports and switches while looking perplexed and often frustrated. At last he seemed satisfied as the UDM whirred and lit up.

He then went to the main computer consoles and carefully checked several websites as well as readouts from several programs. Monkey Fist looked in satisfaction at the computer readouts - which tapped into several scanning satellites as well as Google Earth. On the monitors, each screen showed every nearby city, highlighted with readouts on their electricity use, incoming and outgoing transmissions from cell phones, internet and land lines. He zeroed in on the coordinates of their lair. Nothing was to be seen. Despite their power usage, the mountain where the lair was set up appeared just as black and invisible on the scanners as the uninhabited mountains around them.

He heard a rustle and a sigh from the chair where Maze was sitting. 'Ah, feeling better?' he said, glancing aside.

Maze looked back at him wearily. 'The pain is easing.' he said. 'Another day or two and I should be fully recovered.'

'I'm glad to hear it.' said Monkey Fist. 'Soon we will need your peculiar talents to test the machine. It's initial functions are working well - the lair is now completely hidden from any surveillance, and all our communications will be untraceable.'

Maze nodded. 'And _your_ peculiar talents?' he said, his voice still sounding raspy and strained. 'We still have not found a way to fully harness them. That will be crucial.'

'Truth be told, you were not even sure I would possess them when you freed me from my imprisonment.' said Monkey Fist. Maze did not answer. 'As it happens, your guesses were correct.' Monkey Fist went on. 'This machine will assist in harnessing them - but it will be incumbent on me to _unlock_ them so they _can_ be harnessed.'

Maze nodded. 'Then we should begin training as soon as possible.' he said, making as if to sit up, but he winced and fell back against the chair.

'Soon.' said Monkey Fist, glancing at him. 'As you say - you still need rest. And that is just as well, for there is something I need to tend to.' He turned and began walking back towards the exit, his feet making a dull thunking noise at every step. 'I will be back before long.' he said. 'Please do not touch the machines while I'm away.'

Maze grimaced, fighting up to a full sitting position. '_Maokiwa_ - Where are you going? said Maze, his voice suspicious. 'You cannot travel openly in that state without attracting attention, and I cannot mask you again until I have recovered! It was all I could manage to conceal us until we returned here...'

'My ninja skills will be enough for concealment.' said Monkey Fist, pausing and looking back. 'I must return to the manor. I'm expecting... _ company_.' Then he vanished into the tunnel, his footsteps echoing to silence as Maze stared after him.

* * *

Grimm Probable strode out from Chief Sakituya's cabin at Kamp Kwitcherbeliakin. His expression was one of disappointment, and fear, as well as steely determination. Rueful chittered softly from his perch on the handlebars of the bike outside as Grimm took out his communicator. He punched in a set of numbers and paused. There was a dial tone and a click, then the still, pine scented air of the camp was pierced by a tinny voice from the speakers.

_"You've reached the offices of Credible Investigations, paranormal researchers and exterminators. We're not here right now but if you leave a message with your name, number and what kind of otherwordly problem you're having we'll get back to you as soon as we can."_

Grimm winced. _'Figures.'_ he thought, scowling at the LED screen and breaking off the connection without leaving a message. _'The arrogant little twerp keeps turning up when I don't need her, and now in the one sitch where she might actually be useful, she's nowhere to be found.'_

He dialed again, and Jade's voice answered. 'Yo - GP!' she said, her voice sounding anxious. 'What'd he say?'

Grimm paused, looking like he wasn't sure how to answer. At last he shrugged. 'I'll fill you in later.' he said. 'Right now I've got some... _hiking_ to do. It could be a while before I get back - in the meantime, keep analyzing the data we've already got.' Jade nodded, then Grimm shut off the communicator.

He looked doubtfully back towards Sakituya's cabin, and then turned to the _Ksikkihkíni_. From the trunk he took a pack and supplies, then he wheeled the bike to a storage cabin and secured it, activating the defense mechanisms. Then he hoisted his pack, checked several files on his communicator, and left on foot, taking one of the hiking trails and plunging into the surrounding forest with Rueful scurrying behind him.

* * *

Bates sat at a small desk in his room at Monkey Fist's manor. He looked around, taking in the familiar surroundings of the building in which he and his family had served the Fiskes for generations. From the external surroundings, he then moved to internal reflection. He sighed, remembering happier times when his master had been a famed archeologist and the name of Fiske was honored and respected.

Those had been good days, recalling to his mind the stories his grandfather had told him of the times when the sun never set on the British Empire. Safaris, the collecting of artifacts and journeys of exploration were the sport of nobles then, and the Fiskes had been among the greatest.

He had not minded journeying with Lord Montgomery Fiske in those days - indeed he had been honored to join in the adventures, and to be mentioned in the reports of them, even if only in passing. The respect and admiration given to the name of Fiske after a successful recovery was more than enough to put up with the insect bites, the heat and discomfort of camping in the wild as well as the long and sometimes fruitless explorations.

Then the matter of the monkey idols had arisen. Whether the idols were mystical or not, Bates hadn't known or cared. But from the moment his master had collected all four of the idols, it was as if they had set a curse on the Fiske family.

It had been bad enough when his master had gone to that horrible DNAmy woman and had his hands and feet genetically altered. At least he had kept it secret at first. But after the defeat of his master by that blond haired interloper, everything had come out.

Monty Fiske had gone from being a respected member of the community to being the looney with monkey hands. While his master may have been respected by the villains and ne'er-do-wells of the world, his reputation at home had gone, for lack of a better phrase, straight down the loo. But still Bates had kept at his job, partly from family tradition, and partly because it still paid well. He could endure the taunts and whispers he heard from the townsfolk when running errands to maintain the manor, which grew steadily worse every time 'Monkey Fist' made the news for his schemes or his capture at the hands of a teenage girl. But it had been partly a relief when his master had disappeared for a time after setting out to seek some shrine to the Ono, or the Yo-yo, or some such thing.

But his master had returned. Bates would normally have been delighted, but the changes that had come over Monty Fiske had only caused his fears to increase rather than diminish. For the last few weeks he had grown increasingly worried, wondering what madness the manor might soon become a staging platform to enact. And he found he could no longer endure the uncertainty, the seemingly never-ending descent of the Fiske name into ignominy and disrepute. He had quietly been winding up his affairs and there were only a few more things to set in order.

Bates sighed and sit down, taking up his pen and pausing every so often, wondering how to best phrase what he was writing.

_Milord,_

_It is with the deepest regret that I inform you I can no longer continue in my current position. I hereby tender my resignation, effective immediately._

_Sincerely, your servant  
Arthur Alistair Bates, Esq._

He looked over the paper, which represented the termination of nearly a hundred years tradition in his family. He was wondering whether there was some better way to say it, when he suddenly heard a heavy knocking at the front doors...

* * *

Kim walked across the foreboding cobblestone bridge leading from the grounds to Monkey Fist's manor. _'Been a while since I was here.'_ she thought briefly. _'Even though it wasn't really me, it was holo-me_.' She had parachuted down to a perfect landing on the grounds outside the manor, stowing her chute and putting her helmet over the face of a garden bust of Monty Fiske.

In a strange way, she felt coming here was somehow closing the loop. It was in a secret chamber beneath this manor where Ron had first been gifted with the Mystical Monkey Power. She remembered hearing Ron's yelping screams through her Kimmunicator as he was being chased by the genetically altered criminal. She remembered the feeling of utter helplessness, being thousands of miles away from Ron while he was in danger, unable to do anything about it. And then her cousin Larry had taken the Kimmunicator and given Ron the cryptic instruction to remember the Cloud Guardian from Fortress.

And the next thing she knew, she was listening in amazement as Ron reported that Monkey Fist had been defeated and he needed the police to come help clean things up. She'd never given the Mystical Monkey Power much thought after that. Yet it was a thread that had run through Ron's life from the moment he had stepped into the circle of the four Monkey idols within this manor.

The manor itself reminded Kim of a Transylvanian castle, but without the gargoyles and thunderstorms. It had a slightly more homey look to it, with latticed windows shining yellow on the upper floors through the dim twilight. Kim took the heavy brass knocker in her hand and heard the echoing hammer of metal against wood as it rolled through the unseen hallways behind the door.

She waited for nearly a minute before she heard a lock clicking, and then the door creaked open. She saw the short, rotund form of Bates peering around the doorway. Bates saw Kim and his mustached face sprang into a look of sudden worry. _'Bingo.'_ she thought. _'He knows something.'_

Bates seemed on the verge of slamming the door in her face, but Kim pushed her way into the manor without waiting and he began stammering through the usual displays of unnecessary British courtesy. 'Ah... Ms. Possible. To what do I owe this unexpected...'

Kim stared at him. 'Where is he?' she said, and was pleased to see his tan complexion turning several shades paler.

'He... who?' said Bates, with poorly feigned confusion. 'I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking ab... Ms. Possible, I beg your pardon!' Kim had turned from him and was heading towards the stairs. 'I say Ms. Possible, this is an intrusion! I must insist...!'

And he followed at her heels, protesting every step of the way until she reached the upstairs study, following the floor plans Wade had uploaded to her Kimmunicator. She looked around the study, opening drawers, checking behind wall paintings, looking for any evidence of current activity.

'Young lady, if you do not stop this vandalism I will be forced to call the police!' Bates said, as Kim swept a number of articles off of the desk to check beneath the blotter.

She paused to glare at him. 'You _do_ that!' she said. 'Let's get as many bobbies down here as you can gather! That way we can have them help search the place for your monkey-fisted boss!' And as he blanched even whiter, she knew that the last thing he wanted was to have a house full of policemen. 'But we don't even need to do that, do we?' she said. 'You _know_ where he is!'

Bates' hands were shaking and his eyes were wide. Sweat was beading on his forehead. 'You... you must leave _immediately_!' he said, and his voice sank to a pleading whisper.

'I'm not leaving until I find him!' Kim shouted. 'You think I'm fooling around? Note _serious _face!'

'Ms. Possible, _please_..!'

'_Where is he?'_ she said, raising her voice even higher, and Bates finally seemed to crack.

'I... I don't know where he is now!' he answered, shaking even harder. 'He came back to the manor several weeks ago, but he only stayed long enough to reorganize his affairs!'

Kim got right in front of him, seizing his collar in one fist. 'What do you mean, _reorganize_?'

'He... he's planning something - larger and more ambitious than anything I've ever known from him before - but he wouldn't tell me what it was. He emptied all of his accounts and transferred the funds somewhere else because he knew they could be traced! Then he ordered me to look after the manor and simply disappeared, that's all I know, I swear!' He looked utterly terrified, glancing from side to side as he continued. 'Ms. Possible, you're in great danger as long as you stay here! He comes back periodically, but only to make sure I'm following orders - I think he has been expecting you to come...'

Kim smiled darkly. 'Well he got _that_ much right!' she said.

'_Please_! He's not the _same_ as you remember him! You must leave, I beg you!'

And from a recessed alcove, nearly black in it's shaded darkness, Kim heard a smooth voice. 'Thank you, Bates.' Bates flinched, looking behind him. 'So good of you to escort the _cheer squad_ to my study.' said the voice, sounding amused and sarcastic. 'Wait outside, I will now entertain our guest.' And from the shadows, a figure emerged. His outfit was slightly different, a bit more stylized than she remembered. His skin was rough and gray, but there was no mistaking the person who now stood by the fireplace with a relaxed smiled on his face.

'Monkey Fist!' Kim said, shaking off an odd sense of deja vu.

'That will be all, Bates.' said Monkey Fist, jerking his head towards the door without even looking at his butler. 'I said _wait outside_.'

Bates was still shaking. 'M... milord...' he started, but Monkey Fist now looked at him, his face suddenly scowling.

_'Now._' he said firmly.

Bates backed away towards the door with a final glance at Kim that was almost pitying. Then he turned and fled, closing the door behind him. Monkey Fist leaned casually against the mantelpiece, looking totally at ease. 'I understand you've been looking for me.' he said. 'Well... here I am. How may I be of assistance?' And he looked at Kim with a wicked smile.

'What did you do to Ron?' she said, moving towards him.

Monkey Fist looked surprised at the question. 'Only what I've been saying I would do for a long time.' he said, waving his hand. 'Surely over the course of our encounters, I have made my intentions plain?'

Kim felt a surge of anger. He was obviously amused by her demands and was rubbing it in her face, being deliberately vague. 'Tell me where he is and what you did to him!' she said, and both of her hands clenched.

Monkey Fist stared at her. 'No.' he said.

Kim drew even closer, getting within striking distance. '_Tell me where he is!'_ she said.

'Why _should_ I?' said Monkey Fist with a smile. 'When it's so much more fun to leave you guessing...'

Kim felt a chill. His demeanor was entirely too relaxed. It was as if he didn't know that Kim was tensing for an attack, or like he simply didn't care. He just stood as if warming himself at the hearth. 'Then I hope you've had your fill of fun, because I'm taking you in!' she said.

Monkey Fist laughed, his higher notes sounding like a monkey's shrill cries. 'And how do you intend to do that?' he said. 'I won't go willingly, and you won't be able to force me.'

Kim glared, going into a ready position. 'We'll see.' she said. 'I doubt you'll last long without your monkey ninjas backing you up.'

Monkey Fist waved impatiently. 'I no longer need Monkey Ninjas, I can handle you myself.' he said.

'I doubt you could lay a finger on me!' Kim said, her eyes narrowing.

Monkey Fist held up his hand, extending his pinky. Then with a sudden motion, he whipped his hand down, smashing his finger into the wall behind him. The block he hit shattered and cracks spread through the mortar around it. He raised his hand again, smiling. 'One finger is all I should need.' he said coldly. 'But I am a gentleman above all. You wish to take me by force? I shall let yours be the first blow.' and he stood with his arms outstretched.

As quick as sight, Kim slipped a pair of heavy cuffs from her hip pouch and snapped them over his wrists. There was a soft grinding noise as Monkey Fist raised an eyebrow, then he moved his wrists slowly apart. There was a metallic squeal, the chain stretched as the links bent, then the chain snapped. Monkey Fist pulled the manacle off his right wrist, twisting the metal apart, then he did the same to the manacle on his left wrist. He used both hands and wadded the metal into a rough ball and threw it over his shoulder where it landed on the floor with a heavy _thunk_. Kim stared in surprise.

'As that was not really a punch, I'll let you have another go.' said Monkey Fist smoothly.

Kim went into a crouch and leaped forward, spinning in mid-air and lashing out with a sweeping kick that landed solidly into Monkey Fist's gut. But it was like kicking solid rock. She pushed, flipping herself backwards and trying to shove him off balance, but he didn't budge at all. Monkey Fist tutted his lips and shook his head. 'You fight like a _girl_.' he said.

Then he leaped forward. She cartwheeled to the side and caught a glimpse of Monkey Fist's strike smashing his fine mahogany desk to splinters.

They fought, moving through the room in a dance of kung-fu maneuvers. Kim's many styles allowed her to land several punches and kicks, but she drew back in pain each time, her knuckles smarting and her heels stinging as she smashed them uselessly into Monkey Fist's stone hide.

Monkey Fist was still using Tai Shing Pek Kwar, but while he didn't seem to feel any pain, he wasn't nearly as quick. She stayed ahead of his attacks, but he seemed relentless in his assault, with no regard for fear or pain.

Another charge and she tucked and rolled, planting her heels firmly in his chest and heaving her legs with all her might. There was tremendous weight, but Monkey Fist was taken off balance and thrown straight into the fireplace. Burning logs scattered and rolled from the hearth, tumbling into the room as Monkey Fist regained his feet and rushed at her again. She leaped and landed neatly on top of one of the high bookcases which lined the room.

Monkey Fist stared up at her. 'And I thought today's youth had no appreciation for literature.' he said, sneering.

Kim smiled down at him. 'I _love_ a nice, heavy book!' she said, then she braced herself against the wall and pushed on the shelves with her feet. The bookcase creaked and fell forward like a trap door, falling over Monkey Fist and sending cascades of books down on top of him. She landed on the smooth, dusty backside of the heavy bookcase and was just wondering how to move it so she could check on her enemy. A stone arm burst through the back of the case and Kim leaped back in surprise.

Monkey Fist tore the wood to pieces and emerged, holding one dusty volume. 'SunTzu's _Art of War_.' he said, glancing at the cover. 'Always an entertaining read.' He threw the book aside and charged.

Kim leaped and flipped over him, tumbling forward and landing in the wheeled sitting chair that was behind Monkey Fist's shattered desk. She spun and rolled off to the side as Monkey Fist attacked again.

Monkey Fist's face betrayed a moment of frustration as Kim rolled out of his reach again. He braced himself and ran at her, keeping his arms raised in case she tried leaping over him again. But Kim had been hoping for just that. She tucked and rolled beneath him, sliding through his legs and pulling the chair with her. Monkey Fist fell into the chair and Kim spun and kicked, sending him spinning towards the closed doorway like an out-of-control top.

Monkey Fist flailed with his arms and legs, but seemed disoriented. He smashed open the heavy door and spun out into the hallway with Kim in pursuit. As she passed through the door she heard another crash and saw Monkey Fist standing up, the chair lying in shattered pieces beneath his feet.

Kim skittered to the side as Monkey Fist rounded again and ran at her like a charging rhino. 'As always, you're making this much more annoying than it has to be!' he snarled.

'As always, happy to oblige!' Kim smiled, dodging him yet again. This time, his punch struck a decorative suit of armor in the corridor, blasting it apart and sending helmet, greaves, chestplate and gauntlets scattering everywhere with a crash. The long halberd it carried fell clattering at Kim's feet.

Kim hooked the shaft with her toes and spun it neatly into her hands, holding it at the ready. She still hesitated to use the bladed end, but as Monkey Fist shifted his stance and came at her, she swung the shaft of the polearm to connect with his head about a foot below the blade.

The halberd came to a total stop as Monkey Fist caught the bladed end in his hand and squeezed, crumpling the metal like tin foil. Then with a wrenching motion, he took the shaft in his other hand and pivoted, whirling around and pulling Kim in a sweeping arc which sent her tumbling down the corridor.

Kim got to her feet as Monkey Fist snapped the polearm in two pieces, throwing them aside. He charged at her again, and Kim rolled to the side. Monkey Fist clutched at her, but his momentum was too great and he shot past her. He turned and his stone feet slipped against the smooth floor. He tumbled and crashed into a rack on the wall, spilling a number of antique weapons. Monkey Fist let out a roaring cry and leaped into the air, spinning and tumbling towards her.

Kim's hand fell on a flail which had fallen from the rack on the wall - a long chain with a spiked ball of iron at the end. Moving quickly, she whirled it in a sweeping curve towards Monkey Fist's ankle.

The chain caught his ankle in mid leap. Kim pulled and heaved, feeling the strain on the tendons in her arms as the chain tightened, throwing Monkey Fist off balance and turning his leap into a rolling tumble that sent him spiraling into the far wall.

There was a smashing sound and a noise of crumbling rock along with a rising cloud of dust. The memory of the blackened gargoyles shattering in the key shrine came to Kim, and she worried for a moment. _'Please - if he's broken, let his head still be able to talk so he can tell me where Ron is!'_

But she was both relieved and shocked when Monkey Fist surged back through a gaping hole in the wall, seeming completely undamaged. He faced off against Kim again, smiling. 'Normally the fight would have ended in your favor after a move like that.' he said. 'But I fear the days when I lie groaning and helpless at your feet are long gone!' He paused, looking at Kim, who was gasping and sweating where she stood. Monkey Fist went back into the ready position. 'Feeling tired?' he said, the sneer remaining in his voice. 'I haven't broken a sweat. Well, I couldn't even if I tried. I could fight you all week without needing rest, Kim Possible. And I may well do so - I've enjoyed toying with you.'

Kim felt stymied. She had used several moves against him successfully, which should have put him down for the count, but he just kept coming back again and again. He attacked and she blocked, but the force of his strength nearly overbalanced her, even braced for him as she was. Monkey Fist struck relentlessly, steadily driving her back. Kim was aware she was backing slowly up a spiral staircase until at last she emerged through a trap door and onto the battlements of a high tower, one of four which jutted from each corner of the manor. A chill wind whipped around her and the sky was dim with gray, rolling clouds.

Monkey Fist charged up onto the battlements and swept his arm out, flinging her back like a rag doll. Kim landed and rolled as best she could, but still felt sharp pains on her knee and her back as she scudded across the stone floor. She slammed painfully against the embrasure and kicked out, hooking his leg, trying to pull him off balance. But he was too heavy for her to budge and he snaked an arm out faster than she anticipated, getting a grip on the wide flap at the end of one leg of her flare pants. Kim instinctively tried to grapple his fingers loose, but realized too late that he only wanted to lure her into reaching for him. His other hand closed fast around her wrist and he rose up, jerking Kim to her feet.

Kim felt pain lancing through her arm like fiery needles as the stone fingers tightened. His skin felt hard and totally cold as he strode to the edge of the tower battlements, pulling her along with him. He held her out over the edge and Kim looked down, seeing her feet dangling over a sheer drop of over forty feet.

'You _see_, Kim Possible?' he said, his voice alight with malice. 'You were never a match for me! In every previous encounter, it was your bungling sidekick who saved _you_! And now that he is out of the picture, you're _nothing_!'

'Nothing _this_!' Kim snarled, and she used Monkey Fist's grip on her to pivot and launched a kick straight into his face. Kim felt the bone-jarring impact, but when she drew back her leg, Monkey Fist was still smiling. He raised his other hand in a feigned gesture of yawning.

'I'm sorry,' he said, his smooth English voice sounding apologetic. 'Did you _do_ something just then?'

Kim gritted her teeth and kicked again, her heel slamming solidly into his nose. But he didn't seem fazed in the slightest.

'Pathetic.' said Monkey Fist, his lips curling into a sneer. 'Fighting a talentless child like you is beneath my dignity. I should just leave you as an example of your weakness - but since I can't have you following me, I will spare you any further humiliation - and simply put you out of my misery!'

Monkey Fist dropped her. Kim saw the walls of the manor blurring past her eyes as she plummeted towards the ground far below, gaining speed. With a quick glance upwards, she saw Monkey Fist leaning over the battlements, a look of triumph on his face. _'You may be stronger Monkey Fist,'_ she thought, pointing out her wrist. _ '...but you haven't gotten any smarter.'_ There was an explosive burst and a whirring sound as her grapple line sped to the sill of one of the tower windows...

Monkey Fist glared in rage as Kim's body went into a curved and graceful swing, the bone-shattering impact becoming a smooth landing on the grounds below. _'Idiot!'_ he thought savagely. _'It's smash equipment first - THEN throw hero off building!' _ He felt furious - with himself for overlooking something so basic, and at Kim for having the audacity to save herself instead of perishing when it was obvious she had no hope of victory.

He went back a few steps, intending to leap down after her. His anger still burned, but it became more calculated as he anticipated the surprise of his adversary when he came crashing down onto her like a meteor. As much as the lack of feeling irked him at times, he had to admit that being invulnerable was an excellent trade-off.

He seemed to even _see_ his anger like a yellow light behind his eyes, then stopped in amazement. It wasn't his imagination - there actually was a yellow light surrounding him, a blazing flame that seemed to match his anger, rising with it, clinging to him like a thing alive and building to a point where it began to leap from his body of it's own accord...

'Oh _dear_...' he said, looking at his left hand, where the mark of the Yono was suddenly shining a brilliant red.

Inside the mansion, Bates was hiding. He had listened to the sounds of the fight in the study and hallways with increasing worry and disquiet. Now he heard a rumbling from the floors above, and felt the stones beneath his feet starting to shake. There was a yellow glow, an unearthly light that seemed to shine _through_ the very stone of the walls...

Kim was dashing back to the entrance of the manor when the door flew open. Bates nearly bowled her over, tearing down the pathway towards the iron gate, his rotund frame puffing and sweating. Kim looked up to the roof, where she saw a yellow glow that looked somehow familiar...

Then the manor split in half.

There was an ear-rending_ crack_, and a wide seam divided the manor down the middle, as if it had suddenly been stuck with a gigantic blunt axe. The yellow glow tore through the building and Kim barely had an instant to register her shock before she was racing down the walkway after Bates.

Monkey Fist felt himself falling. Huge blocks of masonry which had once been his dwelling place were tumbling around him through a gray swirl of billowing dust, the yellow glow around him fading with his shock and surprise. He saw occasional glimpses of familiar objects and possessions flashing in and out of sight as the manor collapsed on top of him, burying him in a heap of rubble, smothering everything into darkness and silence...

Bates looked at the shattered wreck of the manor. For a moment he considered going back to see if his master was all right somehow, but then he thought better of it. _'Well - it was a good job while it lasted.'_ he thought, shaking his head. _ 'Hopefully that position at Buckingham Palace is still open...'_ Then he turned away.

Kim stood by the wrought iron gates. The low wall which surrounded the estate, the gardens and the grounds were now the only things left of the manor. The building was reduced to a crumbled pile of stone and wood. She listened to the quiet sound of settling dust for several seconds, then slowly raised her Kimmunicator. 'Wade...' she said. 'You there?'

'What up, Kim?' he said, sounding ready for business. Then he caught sight of Kim's expression. Kim tilted her wrist and gave Wade a view of the grounds. 'Woah!' he said. 'Is that the manor? Normally when you wreck a lair, there's _something_ left over...'

'Monkey Fist was here.' Kim said. 'I fought him. Can you scan for...' then she faltered, for given Monkey Fist's stone body, saying _scan for life forms_ didn't seem quite right. But Wade seemed to have caught on.

'Sweeping with UV... Infrared... Ultrasonics...' he said, pausing at each word. He shook his head. 'Nothing so far. Was he... _inside_ when the manor blew?' Kim nodded. Wade whistled. 'What did you _do_ to the place?'

'It wasn't me.' Kim answered. 'It... looked like the power of the Yono.' Wade clucked his tongue, but said nothing.

Kim sighed. 'Wade, I saw pretty much the same thing here that happened at Yamanouchi. The Yono fired some kind of yellow light, and then the whole school just split down the middle.'

Wade was looking off to the side, biting his lip. 'Uhhh... huuuuuhhhhh...'

Kim shook her head. 'Wade you _saw _the pictures! The buildings didn't just fall apart on their own.'

'All right, all right!' Wade said waving his hands in capitulation. 'So what now? Did Monkey Fist _tell_ you anything?'

Kim sighed, looking over the manor again. 'Not really - just vague hints. I'll need to get some people down here to help look through all this.' She looked at the electrical poles outside the manor grounds The wires that connected to the manor were now all dangling from the poles, snapped and sparking. 'But the manor's phone lines are down.' she said. 'Along with the manor itself.'

Wade was typing again. 'The town nearby is small enough that they don't have VOIP.' he said. 'But they actually have an old style call box just down the road - that's your fastest bet for getting the cops and an emergency crew down there.'

Kim nodded. 'I'd better get someone here fast then. There's no way we'll be able to dig Monkey Fist out unless we have a backhoe or something.'

'You think he's still..._alive_?' Wade said.

Kim looked out over the still and silent heap of debris. 'I don't know.' she said. 'During the fight, nothing I did seemed to hurt him...'

'Kim, a _manor_ fell on top of him!' Wade said. 'Animated statue or not, he's probably shattered to pieces...'

'I know!' Kim answered. 'But Monkey Fist was the only solid lead we had for finding Maze and Ron. If there's even a chance he can still..._ talk _somehow... I have to take it.'

Wade sighed and nodded. The screen went blank and Kim went through the iron gate, heading down the road and looking for the police call box...

* * *

The dust continued to settle on the huge pile of tumbled stones and bricks which had been Monkey Fist's manor. All was quiet except for the soft hiss of crumbled stone that continued to sift through the rubble.

Maze stepped forth from the shadows outside the grounds, staring at the wreck with a look of mingled wonder and satisfaction. His attention was drawn to a section of the heaped stones that was suddenly shifting, as if something beneath it was squirming and writhing.

There was a grating and a clattering sound as Monkey Fist burst forth, sending larger blocks rolling before him and fresh plumes of dust rising as he struggled free of the remains of his house. He saw Maze and looked affronted, ridiculously trying to brush himself clean and adjusting his outfit.

'Well,' said Maze, his dark eyes glittering. 'You are undamaged, I presume?'

'What are _you_ doing here?' said Monkey Fist peevishly. 'I have everything under control...'

'So I see.' said Maze, looking around at the devastation. 'I warned you something like this might happen. The power of the Yono would normally require decades of training before a mortal could hope to use it safely. You are fortunate that your body is still in its petrified state. Otherwise you could easily have killed yourself...'

Monkey Fist glared sullenly at the remains of his manor. 'Fortunate indeed.' he said.

'...not to mention the fact that it was foolish to reveal yourself before the next phase of our plan. The less information _Mi'kksiistsikomma_ has, the better.'

'Then all the more reason to try and finish her now, as we _should_ have done at the UNIT building.' said Monkey Fist dismissively.

'I was too weakened by the shadow-medicine.' said Maze firmly. 'The risk was too great...'

'There was no risk.' said Monkey Fist. 'Probable was imprisoned and helpless. And if nothing else, I have now _proven_ that Kim Possible is no match for me.'

'The plan is not yet in progress.' said Maze firmly. 'Until that happens, we cannot risk the world at large learning _anything_.' He paused, staring darkly at Monkey Fist. 'What did you _tell_ her?'

Monkey Fist still looked resentful, but he answered calmly. 'That she has no hope of winning. Beyond that I told her nothing.'

Maze nodded. 'Then let us return to the lair before you are tempted to say anything else. What is it your people one said - _Loose lips sink ships_?'

Monkey Fist growled, but stood beside Maze. In a moment, they were both wreathed in a swirling haze of shadow, then they were gone.

Kim hung up the phone. She had spent several minutes trying to get in touch with the police, several more minutes trying to explain what had happened, then several more minutes persuading them to come and investigate. But when she hung up and began running back down the road to the manor grounds, she heard the faint sound of a siren in the distance, meaning the police were indeed on their way.

She sighed and ground her teeth. The encounter had certainly not gone the way she had hoped it would. The clues were still dancing just beyond her reach. She hoped once they recovered Monkey Fist, or what remained of him, there would be more answers to come. During all the fight, the one question she'd asked more than any other had remained unanswered -_Where was Ron?_

_'Hold on Ron,'_ she thought. _'I promise - I'll find you!'_

* * *

_Rhonda Fatigable was alone in a formless, shapeless void. In the UNIT building, she had been held by Monkey Fist while Maze, using Kim's body, had used his shadow-medicine to do... something. She remembered a sensation of chilling cold. Then the room had seemed to be growing smaller, more distant. She remembered reaching out to Grimm, who was struggling to reach her, but he was so tangled in wires that he couldn't get free to help her. He grew more distant, as if the room was somehow on a track moving away from her, growing darker and fuzzier... or had she been moving away from them?_

_Then there was nothing but dark, swirling mists. Shadow and vapor seemed to billow and curl around her, but never took any shape or form that she could focus on. There was not even any ground beneath her feet._

_It was worse than being alone in a dark house. At least in a house there were walls to touch, a floor beneath you, sounds and sensations to give some feeling of certainty and position. Here there was nothing. Nothing to see, hear or touch._

_She wasn't aware of how long she remained that way. She hoped that it was a dream or a nightmare, and yet there was no waking. She was terrified of the silence, but she was even more terrified of making any noise, for fear of drawing the attention of any unknown horrors that might be lurking in the mists. It was like being a child in a room at night, feeling sure there was something under the bed waiting to seize you._

_But eventually the silence and the feeling of utter nothingness became too much. She cried out, her voice little more than a frightened whimper at first._

_'Grimm?'_

_She waited, but there was no answer. No sound but her own voice. 'Grimm?' she said again, louder. Again there was only silence. 'Jade?' she shouted. 'Rueful?'_

_She looked around wildly. The mists continued curling and wafting, always seeming just as if something might be taking shape or approaching, but never revealing anything. Rhonda felt tears of hopelessness welling in her eyes as she continued shouting._

_'Please! Someone - anyone...?!'_

_And she nearly screamed as a voice came from behind her._

_'Rhonda?'_

_Rhonda whirled, and dimly through the swirling dark gray vapors, she saw the outline of a boy with a mop of blonde hair and freckles on his face._

_'Oh no!' Rhonda groaned. 'When I said anyone I didn't mean you!'_

_Ron Stoppable looked back at Rhonda, and didn't seem any happier to see her than she was to see him._

Coming Soon:  
Chapter 9

_I can be seized, I can be bought,  
I can be gained by accident,  
Or hunted through years of long labor.  
Yet only a rare few can posses me without harming others - or themselves.  
What am I?_

_Author: A special thanks to Blackbird, who kindly let me refer to his character "Jen Credible" from the Maternal Instinct KP fanfiction. Be sure to check out his stuff so you can get the inside track on the little blurb when Grimm called her agency. They aren't in the same universe, but Blackbird is planning to make an MI version of Team Probable at one point, so I thought I'd do honor by referring to the Credible agency in the normal KP universe where Team Probable exists... Also special thanks to author Vampirenaomi, whose story, 'The Monkey's Valet', inspired the swan song to Bates which took place after the manor was destroyed. _


	10. Ch 9: Power

A Friend In Darkness  
All Things Probable 3

A Kim Possible Fanfiction  
by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and its affiliates, etc. etc.

Chapter 9  
Power_  
Or: Mites Might be Mighty_

Kim picked through a mound of shattered rock and dusty rubble, shifting boulders and large granite stones as best she could. She had to be careful what she moved and where she was standing in case any other debris was dislodged by her efforts, for many sections seemed on the verge of becoming minor landslides.

The local police had arrived not long after Kim had made use of the call box further down the road. And it was not much longer after that when a bulldozer arrived on the scene and began a more effective search of the ruin of Monkey Fist's manor.

Still, it was difficult work. And it seemed unlikely that anyone would find anything until sunrise when there would be more light and hopefully more equipment. Kim had nearly resigned herself to waiting until tomorrow and finding someplace to rest when she heard a shout from the area on the west side of the manor.

'Oy!' an echoing call came from the grounds. 'Something over 'ere!' came the accented voice of one of the bobbies. Kim scrambled down from the pile of stones and ran to the source of the voice.

She followed a Constable to where a pair of officers and a bloodhound were gathered around a larger heap of rock. 'Lestrade?' said the Constable. 'What have you got?'

Lestrade pointed down with his billy club, shining his torch down at the ground. Powdered stone was caked thick on the grass which surrounded the manor beyond the drawbridge, and there was a section at the edge where the rocks were not heaped, but scattered outwards, as if something had pushed free from _beneath _the rubble.

Kim looked down and felt a chill. Plainly visible on the dusty grass, there was a set of prints that led _away_ from the manor.

'Ruddiest thing I ever seen, Constable Cleese.' said Lestrade. 'Blowed if I know how, but someone _did_ walk out of this nightmare.'

Cleese stared down at the prints. 'Someone's playing games.' he said. 'These aren't footprints - they look like _hand_prints. Are you saying someone pushed his way out from under tons of rock and then started doing handsprings?'

'It's not a prank.' said Kim. 'It was Monkey Fist.'

The policemen looked incredulously at Kim. 'Come off it Ms. Possible.' said Lestrade. 'Monkey Fist? You mean that nutter who gave himself 'ands and feet like a chimp? He 'asn't been here for ages!'

'Trust me, it was _him_.' said Kim firmly.

Constable Cleese was still shaking his head doubtfully. 'Even if it was him, how could one man alone survive being caught in a wreck like this?'

A short distance away another policeman piped up. 'He wasn't alone, sir.' he said. 'There's another set of prints just here.' The officers turned, and beams from several torches showed the handprints in the dusty grass stopping in front of a different pair of prints that led from the grounds _towards_ the ruins. Kim stared down at the long, thin prints. _'Maze.'_ she thought.

Cleese was staring around, examining the grounds in a radius of several yards by the torch light. 'The trail goes invisible past here.' he said, pointing to a radius around the manor where the dust became thinner. He gave a nod to the officer who had the bloodhound on a leash, and the officer turned him loose. Kim watched as the dog snuffled around the area for some time, then began whining as it expanded the range of its search.

Cleese shook his head. 'Clever blighters.' he said. 'Masked their scent somehow?'

The officer shrugged. 'Give him a few minutes sir...' he said.

Cleese sighed impatiently and turned back to Kim. 'Right Ms. Possible - you're the one who called us down here. Besides destruction of private property, would you care to explain how you know it was Monkey Fist, and what you were doing here to start with?'

Kim related what she knew. She told them about the robbery at the UNIT building, about Ron's disappearance, Monkey Fist's stone body, the power of the Yono, and as much as she knew about Maze. Then she braced herself for a predictable response. And the policemen did not disappoint her.

'Really Ms. Possible!'  
'Of all the outrageous...'  
'Utterly daft!'  
'Surely you don't expect us to believe...'  
'Cock-and-bull story...'  
'You Americans and your...'

Kim waited patiently for the exclamations to slow down, then snaked in her reply. 'Is what I just described any weirder than what your Nanny Maim actually _did_?' Kim said simply.

The policemen all took in a short breath as if to reply, but then they all paused comically for a moment, their faces looking thoughtful, then they all exhaled at once. Some were chewing their lips, others running their hands over their helmets, but all of them looked at a loss to answer. At last Cleese shrugged. 'Point taken Ms. Possible.' he said. 'Well if that Monkey Fist blighter has returned, it's obvious he won't be coming back _here_. Have you got any idea where he might go now?'

Kim's face blanked as she went back mentally over everything Monkey Fist had said during their battle. But try as she might, she couldn't come up with anything that might be a clue to where he would go. 'Not yet.' she answered. 'Could you guys put out an APB or something?'

Constable Cleese smiled faintly. 'We call it an All Ports Warning out here, miss.' he answered. 'We'll do what we can, but even you have to admit - it's not going to be easy to get other police stations or the general public to take this seriously. _ Please be on the lookout for a man with monkey hands - may or may not be made of stone - may or may not be traveling with a native American shaman - may or may not be throwing round yellow thunderbolts_.'

Kim sighed. 'Yeah, that about sums it up.' she said. 'Any leads you can gather, any information you can get, please pass it along.'

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

Kim walked down the cobbled road leading through the grounds. The drawbridge now ended ridiculously at the crumbled heap of Monkey Fist's manor, a display of opulence and security for a building which no longer existed. She took out her Kimmunicator and activated it with its shrill beep. 'Wade - tell me you've got more to go on than 'we'll do what we can'.' she said hopefully.

Wade was typing madly even as he was speaking. 'The scanner sweeps are giving me weird data, Kim. I can detect the movement of two persons up to a point mid way through the grounds, then they sort of... fade out.' He looked confused and frustrated, as if he thought his computer was playing a prank or being difficult on purpose.

'As if they disappeared?' Kim said.

Wade grimaced. 'I still think it's portal tech, but yeah...' he said.

'So which way did they go?'

Wade was still typing. 'They were heading... northeast it looks like. Unless they do a crazy Ivan...'

Kim sighed. 'All right.' she said. 'Do a search for any likely hideouts or lairs along that trajectory.'

Wade bit his lip. 'That could translate to a huge amount of space...' he said. 'It'll take a while to go through.'

Kim smiled grimly. 'Longer than a few hours, I'm guessing?' Wade nodded.

'Then I guess a ride home is in order.' she said. 'Also, let's see if we can follow the money. Bates said that Monkey Fist transferred all of his funds to a secure account. Is there any account that's secure from _you_?'

'None so far.' said Wade with a mischievous smile. 'The world is lucky I'm such a straight arrow, or I'd have so much money...'

'Keep your thoughts pure, Wade.' said Kim, also smiling.

'If it's Monkey Fist's money, no promises.' he answered. 'You can flag a taxi once you're in town. I'll have a ride lined up by the time you reach the nearest airport, and hopefully some more information as well...'

And within the hour, Kim found herself in the coach section of one of the new Eurobus jet liners. 'Thanks for finding a seat for me, Mr. Bean.' she said to the pilot, who escorted her personally to her seat.

'Least I can do for the girl who bailed me out of that disastrous European vacation.' said Mr. Bean. 'If it were up to me, I'd give you seating in first class, but...'

'It's no big.' said Kim, smiling. 'I was just glad to help.'

But later in mid-flight, after a few hours of being wedged tightly between two restless travelers on either side, she found herself glancing longingly towards the curtain divider that led towards the first class section.

The flight was loud and cramped, with fidgety children twisting and squealing in their seats, and parents trying to keep them quiet without looking too heavy-handed. The atmosphere was similar to being inside Smarty-Mart on a really busy day.

She tried to be as surreptitious as she could as she tilted her wrist to activate her Kimmunicator, but the man seated to her left still stared down with interest as Kim began talking to Wade. She had to grapple her other wrist around to screen the image from the man's view and get some privacy.

'Wade - you got anything?' she said, lowering her voice. The noise and controlled bedlam of the coach section made eavesdropping difficult, but Kim still didn't want to give her curious co-passengers unfettered access to her conversation.

'Actually, no.' Wade answered, lowering his own voice as well. 'And on both fronts. I hate sounding like a broken record, but whatever components Monkey Fist and his partner were stealing, it's given them a protective blackout like you wouldn't believe.'

'And the money?' Kim said. 'Could you trace his new account?'

'Well...' Wade paused, glancing aside to where the man sitting next to Kim was leaning closer after hearing the word _money_. 'Hey, do you mind?' he said, looking straight at the man, who seemed taken aback and leaned away. 'No dice on the money either. Once he withdrew everything from his normal banks, the trail just _ends_. I've never seen anything like it.'

Kim sighed. 'But.. there must be some kind of unusual purchasing activity, even if we can't prove it's him...'

'I'm looking into that, believe me.' said Wade. 'I'll find a way to track him down. But how about you?'

Kim blinked. 'What... about me?' she said.

'Any thoughts on what you'll do when we find Monkey Fist again?' he looked serious. 'The normal stuff doesn't seem to work on him anymore.'

'No, I guess not.' Kim said. And she felt a sense of apprehension. After fighting and defeating the gargoyles in the key shrine, she had fully expected Monkey Fist to be defeated as well. But the battle in the manor flashed through her mind, and all the moves she had used against Monkey Fist. Like hitting a tank with ping-pong balls, he had simply kept coming back until he had caught her. 'So it's time to try coming up with something _abnormal_ again. Once I get back, we need to put our heads together and talk about the Yono. Go over the scrolls again and get any information that you can. Even if it's just myth or legend, I want to hear it.'

Wade looked doubtful but nodded before the screen faded to black. Kim leaned back, but the man seated next to her spoke. 'That sounded quite exciting! Do you happen to need a sidekick...?' And Kim felt suddenly stung by the question, for the man was seated right where Ron should have been...

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

Grimm Probable hiked resolutely up a winding trail that ascended to the dizzying heights of a large mountain in the midst of the forests around Kamp Kwitcherbeliakin. It had taken him some time to find the trail, for when he had first come here, it had been with Rhonda's help. Rhonda - who, despite her reticence, had a deeper connection to these woods and it's secrets than he could ever hope to have. Without her guiding him as she had before, it had been largely memory and luck that led him - along with Rueful. Rueful had spent much of his weasel life on Rhonda's shoulder, and seemed to have picked up on at least some of her mojo.

Plus, Grimm reasoned there was something even deeper. Rueful had been touched by the power of the Great Bear Spirit at the same time Rhonda had. While Rueful had displayed none of Rhonda's abilities, it seemed he could see things that Grimm couldn't see. Rueful's bond to Rhonda as her familiar had become even stronger since their experience at Kwitcherbeliakin. A bond that seemed to rebel against Rhonda's disappearance, drawing Rueful in directions that might bring her back...

So all in all, he was glad to have Rueful close at hand. The weasel scurried ahead of him up the path, sniffing and darting in and out of the coarse, wind-blown scrub brush that grew where the trail hugged the mountain side.

The ascent was tiring, but there was an outcome that he expected. So he focused on keeping his legs bending and straightening as he climbed the trail, even though each step was sending dull pains up and down the tendons of his legs. To take his mind off his fatigue and weariness, he let his thoughts drift to his mission, and the conversation with Chief Sakituya which started him on his lonely journey up the mountain trail...

_Chief Sakituya had listened with a frown on his lips as Grimm related the story about what had happened in the UNIT building. Both of them sat Indian-style, facing each other before the hearth of the fireplace inside his cabin. When Grimm reached the end and described Maze's appearance, and how Ron and Rhonda had vanished, the Indian chief sighed and shook his head._

_'This is what I feared.' he said, and his voice was full of concern. 'Before Katasistsikoowa defeated him, Maze was able to use your body to channel some of the power of the Great Bear into himself. He no longer needs to wait for nightfall to perform his shadow-medicine. Any shadow will obey him now.'_

_Grimm held up his communicator. 'During the fight I managed to record the chant Maze used.' he said. Then he clicked a button, and Maze's voice sounded faintly in the room._

_Sipimottakiksi, Sipimottakiksi,  
Nikaahtomaana nitaaksiistapokska'siimiiwa..._

_Sakituya looked suddenly away as if he had seen and heard something foul. 'Enough!' he said, holding up his hand. Grimm stopped the playback._

_'What does it mean?' he said eagerly. 'If I'm going to find Rhonda - Katasistsikoowa - then I have to know what they did to her! You said she was a chosen one - help me to find her!'_

_Sakituya sighed heavily. 'I will tell you what I know, Otaatoyiwa. But I fear you will not like the words I shall speak. What you have shown me, what I have heard, is bad medicine. Maze has marked himself as Ipi'kowa, a person who can cast what you would call a curse.'_

_'A curse?' said Grimm. 'What kind of curse?'_

_The Indian chief looked down at the floor between where he and Grimm were seated. 'It is a call to the shadows of the night. A call to banish his enemies... to the world of spirits.'_

_Grimm actually went pale. 'You mean she's... dead?' he whispered, and without his confidence and courage behind it, his voice sounded almost childlike and helpless._

_'No.' said Sakituya. 'If she had died, her body would have remained and her spirit would have gone on. She was sent to the world of spirits while still in her body. She drifts now between both worlds, but has no real place in either.'_

_Grimm leaned forward, a hungry look blazing in his eyes. He was trying to remain calm and show Sakituya respect, but he was plainly fighting the urge to demand more information, to pace himself to ensure he gathered everything. 'If this banishing was... a spell of some kind - there must be a counterspell or some way to break the curse!'_

_Sakituya nodded only slightly. 'I think so, yes.'_

_'Can you break the spell?' Grimm said, his teeth gritted with his eagerness._

_'No.' he answered simply._

_Grimm shook his head. 'I don't believe you.' he said. 'There's more about you than you let on. You know things that I don't - that no one else knows!'_

_Sakituya looked keenly at him. 'A man can know how a bird flies, but that knowledge does not mean he can fly himself.' Grimm looked confused and impatient, and Sakituya raised his hand, motioning him to silence. Grimm bit his lip, though it was plain he was holding his tongue with great effort. 'I understand enough to know what Maze has done to the Bear Priestess. But that does not mean I can undo it. Shadow-medicine is a lost art I have never practiced. Whatever secrets Maze has discovered in his years of searching, he has kept them well.'_

_'So what then?' Grimm hissed, his voice a low whisper. 'Are you saying the only way to bring her back is to beat an answer out of Maze? If that's the case, then just point me in the right direction...'_

_Sakituya looked at him as if disappointed. 'You speak as a white man - with your first instinct to violence. Even under threat of pain, Maze will not help you.'_

_Grimm's eyes were burning. 'But if Maze is the only one who knows how to bring her back...'_

_'I did not say so.' Sakituya broke in quickly. 'As powerful as the shadow-medicine is, there is another power that is greater.'_

_Grimm paused, then nodded in understanding. 'The same power that defeated Maze in the hollow.' he said. 'The Great Bear Spirit.'_

_'Yes.' said Sakituya. 'I can only guess, but I believe this guess is good. In order to save Katasistsikoowa, you must commune with the Great Bear. He may guide you and show you what must be done.'_

_'But the Great Bear has never spoken to me.' said Grimm shaking his head. 'He chose Rhonda to be his Priestess. She was the one who communed with him!'_

_'Obviously, that will not help you now.' said Sakituya. 'You must find a way to speak with him yourself.'_

_Grimm stood up, looking determined again. 'I know just where to start.' he said. He had turned and was walking to the door when Chief Sakituya called after him._

_'You may know where to start, young Grimm.' he said. 'But as I said, there is a difference between knowing what to do, and actually being able to accomplish it. The Great Bear Spirit watches over us all. I don't doubt that he knows everything that has happened. He also knows of your desire to find her and that you may seek the hollow where Rhonda first encountered her destiny. But do not expect answers to flow to you so easily. You seek a vision that holy men for many centuries have sought their whole lives - and never found.'_

_Grimm paused, looking back at him. Then he nodded curtly and left, his footsteps fading to silence in the still air outside the cabin._

Grimm's thoughts snapped back to the present as he entered a vast hollow set in the heights of the mountain top. Without waiting, he crossed the echoing space between the cave-like entrance to the hollow, and a recess in the mountain stone at the far end. Within the recess was a boulder, roughly carved into the shape of a bear, nearly nine feet tall. Faintly seen on the earthy floor of the hollow were white lines made of a powder that was mostly scattered and faded with time.

Grimm threw aside his backpack. He looked weather-stained and his hair was unkempt with a thin twig caught in one ragged tangle. He cast himself down in front of the Bear Spirit monument, his voice sounding out with a soft, whispering chant.

_Omahkkiaayowa,  
Nitsiinihkatsimatsiiwa..._

He paused, as if waiting for or expecting some kind of answer. But there was no sound besides a cold wind which circled through the hollow through the vast opening that looked out onto the forest below. He brought his hands together, chanting more loudly.

_Omahkkiaayowa,  
Nitsiinihkatsimatsiiwa..._

But again, nothing happened. Grimm bit his lip, his eyes squeezed shut, his expression darkened as if he were wrestling with impatience or desperation.

_Omahkkiaayowa,  
Nitsiinihkatsimatsiiwa..._

The night fell and deepened. It passed through dark hours to the pale light of dawn. And through it all, Grimm Probable remained on his knees in the hollow, calling out and waiting for a voice that did not answer...

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

_Ron floated in the shimmering void of the spirit world. Rhonda was near him, fidgeting. He had lost track of how long they had both remained that way, simply hovering. At first Ron had been worried that Rhonda would try to continue their fight._

_'All right monkey boy!' she had said, her fists balled up and her teeth gritted. 'Where am I? What did you and your freaky girlfriend do?'_

_'Me?' he had answered. 'You and your BF are the evil mercenaries! What did you and your pal Monkey Fist cook up?'_

_'We didn't cook up anything!' she had answered. 'And in case you didn't notice, I'm here too!'_

_'Yeah?' Ron had said indignantly. 'Last time I checked the bad guys weren't too picky about who gets caught in the crossfire when they do their thing!'_

_Rhonda had sputtered, then raised her hand. 'Get him Rueful!' she had shouted._

_And instinctively, Ron had also shouted. 'Rufus, you're on!'_

_And they had both stayed frozen that way for several seconds, pointing at each other with their faces set in furious masks. But nothing had happened. Total silence enveloped them while the mist swirled around them, heedless of their words._

_'Oh... right.' Rhonda had said sadly, lowering her arm and looking near her feet as if she had been searching for something that was missing. Several more tense minutes had passed. At last Ron had shaken his head and looked around._

_'So if you and Grimm weren't in on this...' he had started._

_'Which we weren't!' Rhonda had piped in quickly._

_'..And if me and Kim didn't do it...'_

_'Which I'm still not convinced of!' _

_'Then what did Monkey Fist do and how do we undo it?' At that, Rhonda's face had fallen into a comical look of confusion. Neither of them had answered._

_Time passed, with neither of them speaking to each other. How long they had stayed that way, Ron couldn't be sure. His watch had stopped working, and his communicator showed nothing but static. Rhonda's equipment was similarly useless. Without any measure of time, things seemed to pass eternally slow. Or perhaps it was passing quickly. They simply couldn't tell._

_'So...' he said at last. 'We're both stuck here?'_

_'Yes.' said Rhonda wearily._

_'And... we're not sure where 'here' is?'_

_'No.'_

_'And we're both stuck here?'_

_Rhonda glared. 'You just said that!' she said angrily._

_'Hey, I'm trying to make conversation!' Ron answered. 'The silent treatment isn't getting us anywhere.'_

_Rhonda's face was pouty. 'You're the good guy.' she said. 'Good guys and villains aren't supposed to chat.'_

_'Well what else can we do?' Ron said._

_Rhonda grimaced. 'All right, what's on your mind?' she said._

_Ron thought, then spoke. 'So... we're both stuck here?'_

_Rhonda stared at him for a moment, then shook her head. 'That's it, I am so out of here!' she said. She turned and flailed her arms and legs as if she were swimming, and she did indeed seem to be getting further away._

_Ron sighed and watched as Rhonda continued moving off until she was swallowed by the shadowy mists that curled and billowed around him. He clucked his tongue and started muttering out loud. 'Five... four... three... two... one...'_

_And coming from the opposite direction, he saw a vague shape moving through the mists. Rhonda looked dumbfounded as she found herself in front of Ron again. 'Hi!' he said, waving cheerily. 'So how'd it go?'_

_She covered her face with her hands and let out a grating moan of frustration. Ron shook his head. 'Look, this is like the twentieth time you've stormed off. You've gone up, down, backwards, forwards, every direction you can possibly go, and you always wind up here. How many more times are you gonna do this before it sinks in?'_

_'Because if I let it sink in, that means I'm accepting it!' she snarled. 'And I refuse to accept being stuck in wherever-the-heck-this-is with doofus-boy!'_

_'All right, listen.' he said. 'You don't like me and I don't like you - we both get that. But if we're gonna find a way out of this mess, we may have to put our heads together.'_

_There was no ground for her to stand on, but Rhonda still looked like she was digging her toe on an unseen floor. 'OK, you think you're such a brainiac - where do we start?'_

_Ron looked at her. 'For starters, how about not insulting the only guy you have for company?'_

_'What, you want to call a truce?' Rhonda sniffed._

_'How about we just agree to be polite until we get this figured out?'_

_Rhonda looked slowly up from her pout. 'And once we do, we can go back to beating the snot out of each other?'_

_Ron sighed again. 'Yeah, I guess so.' he answered._

_Rhonda looked sulky. 'Fine.' she muttered. 'Just remember, I was winning! So when we get back you have to let me overpower you!'_

_Ron blustered. 'Oh, you were not beating me!'_

_Rhonda grinned. 'Was me having you in a headlock part of your master plan to defeat me by letting me clobber you 'till I got tired?'_

_'I was... preparing my counter-attack!' said Ron._

_Rhonda sniffed. 'Fine, don't cooperate. I'll just beat you again anyway...'_

_'Will not!' said Ron._

_'Will too!'__  
'Will not!'__  
'Will too!'  
__'Not!'__  
'Too!'__  
'Not!'__  
'Too!'  
'Notnotnotnotnotnotnot!'  
'Tootootootootootootoo!'  
'Not infinity, I win!'  
'I call double infinity, I win!'  
'I call infinity infinity!'  
'I call triple infinity!'  
'There's nothing higher than infinity infinity!'_

_And Rhonda stopped, her face going into several grimaces before she slumped. 'All right, you win this round with your superior infinity calling skills, but that still doesn't get us out of this dump!'_

_Ron looked around. 'Well, we need something that'll open a doorway out of here.' he said. 'Or... something we can use to signal for help.'_

_Rhonda rolled her eyes. 'Wow, that's smart! Hang on, I'll gather some shadowy mist and use it to build a door - and you can make a signal by rubbing two shadows together to start a fire!'_

_Ron felt nettled. 'Let's hear your ideas then!' he snapped._

_'I don't need ideas, Grimm will find me somehow!' she said, but her expression betrayed doubt._

_Ron looked at the white band around his wrist which contained the tracking chip Grimm had removed from his neck. He tapped the plastic shield where the chip was set. 'I think if we were anywhere they could find us, they'd have been here by now.' said Ron sadly._

_'So... we're both stuck here?' said Rhonda, and there was a hint of tears at the corners of her eyes._

_Ron nodded. And silence fell around them like a cloud._

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

Kim left the school after cheer practice. Bonnie hadn't looked too pleased to see her back after only one day, but she also seemed leery of baiting her directly since Ron had obviously not returned.

After she had gotten home, she found she could no longer parse words with Ron's parents. They were again understanding when she explained about his disappearance, but it was plain they were concerned and disappointed that she had not been able to find him. Whether they blamed her she couldn't tell. But they accepted her assurance that she would not stop until she had found him.

She hadn't objected when they asked if they should call the police and file a missing person report for Ron, even though Kim didn't think it would do any good. Wade had kept touch with the police at Monkey Fist's manor, and nothing more had been found, so she didn't think the police in the States would have any better luck.

Her heart felt guilty and heavy as she left the Stoppable house. She had started on her way back home, but caught sight of the treehouse in the backyard. Rufus was poking his head out of her hip pouch and looking at it longingly. Kim sighed and started walking towards it. Rufus leaped out and scuttled up the wooden planks nailed to the tree trunk, his pink tail whipped out of sight as he went through the trap door. Kim followed him up.

Rufus was scampering here and there as if soaking in the aura of a presence long missed. Kim gingerly crossed the rickety boards of the floor and sat down in the raggedy old couch. She felt rusty springs poking at her back, but there was a quiet peace that filled the treehouse.

Her eyes fell on a section of the wall that had three words painted in red - 'NO GIRLS ALLOWED'. The letters were heavily scratched, as if Ron had been trying to scrape them off. But he seemed to have given up and merely scraped it so that the 'NO' was reduced to one vertical line and the 'S' was removed. It now looked like '1 GIRL ALLOWED'. Kim smiled weakly. Her elbow nudged against a tin can full of pebbles. A slingshot was nestled in among the stones. An old Nacho caddy, with slightly transparent grease stains, was lying empty on the other armrest.

As she sat there, surrounded by the evidence of Ron's life, the fact of his absence seemed to hit her even more keenly and the silence now seemed hollow rather than peaceful. She saw Rufus pulling something across the floor that looked like a brown, scruffy mop head. With another pang of recognition, she picked up a coonskin cap, held it for a few seconds, then put it on her head as she leaned back into the couch.

'Rufus...' she said heavily. '...I'm _not_ a happy camper...'

Rufus looked at her sadly for a moment before the Kimmunicator on Kim's wrist beeped loudly. Kim answered it almost reflexively. Wade looked like he was on the verge of a greeting, but he stopped and looked at her. 'Are you wearing a Davy Crockett hat?' he said.

Kim pulled off the cap, focusing on the glowing screen. 'Uh... of course not.' she said. 'What's the sitch?'

'It's time for monkey chatter.' he answered, and Kim remembered about the planning session they'd scheduled.

'Right.' she said. 'First off - bullet points. Any sign of Monkey Fist's trail? Any leads on his money? Have you figured out how they're blocking you? How's the overall picture looking?'

'Bullet point answers,' said Wade, 'No. No. Partly yes. Lousy.'

'Partial on number three - I'm listening.' said Kim.

'It's the equipment Team Probable was stealing for them. We know about the Overthruster and the UDM, and I _think_ that they also have the CMC Transmat. Alone, those components are powerhouses for blocking hackers, but combine them together...'

'And you get the ultimate Wade-blocking machine.' Kim said darkly.

'Not just from me - they could be shielded more securely than anyone on earth now. I'm almost sure they've got other components that I don't know about, so I can't even be sure what they've ultimately built.'

Kim felt numb. 'So the trail's gone cold again.' she said. 'We're back to waiting for them to make the next move.'

'Which brings us to monkey chatter.' said Wade. 'When they do make their next move, how are you gonna deal with Monkey Fist?'

'That depends on what you can tell me about the Yono.' Kim said. 'What have you got?'

Wade was typing as he answered. 'This has been tougher than I thought.' he said. 'When the manor went up, so did all of Monkey Fist's research. Luckily he had an on line database I managed to find that has some of his old notes. They don't say much about the Yono itself - just that the Han was it's counterpart and that the Yono was 'the Destroyer'. The scrolls Monkey Fist stole show the location of the original shrine and instructions on how to release the Yono, but it kind of stops there.'

'And other legends about the Yono from other sources?' Kim said.

'Aren't any.' said Wade. 'Whatever information Monkey Fist had, he had _all_ of it.'

Kim thought, tapping her feet on the weathered planks. 'That might explain how Monkey Fist _and_ the Yono were defeated at Yamanouchi - Monkey Fist didn't know what he'd bought into when he freed the Yono.'

Wade smiled. 'My turn to listen.' he said. 'Spill. I know you said you remember fighting the Yono, then there was a bright flash, and then you said you were awake again and it was all over. What really happened?'

'I only know what Ron told me.' Kim answered. 'He said that the Yono released me, Rufus and Sensei from a spell that petrified us because Hana defeated Monkey Fist.'

'Why would the Yono call it quits just because his _servant_ got beat up?' said Wade, looking confused.

Kim shrugged. 'It was something about Monkey Fist walking the path of the Yono. Maybe the Yono's freedom was tied to Monkey Fist somehow.'

'And when Monkey Fist was turned to stone and buried with the shrine, what happened to the Yono himself?' said Wade.

Kim shook her head. 'I don't know. I saw Monkey Fist sinking below the ground with the shrine, but the Yono wasn't there with him...'

Wade was typing on his keyboards as he listened. 'It sounds like the Yono's power is some kind of... _genie_ thing.' he said. 'I think once someone agrees to walk the Yono's path, they also agree to take the Yono's _place_. Monkey Fist may have been tricked into becoming something he didn't intend...'

'You mean like... a Yono Jr.?' said Kim.

'More like a Yono in line.' said Wade. 'Whatever the Yono was, he may not be any longer. Now Monkey Fist has essentially taken his place. When Monkey Fist first released him, the Yono was free to do as he wished and still keep his power - as long as Monkey Fist remained undefeated. Now the Yono may _really_ be free, but his power is still in Monkey Fist.' He paused and sighed. 'I can't _believe_ that actually sounded plausible.' he said.

Kim smiled. 'Wade, if your guesses ran for President, I'd vote for them.'

Wade grinned sheepishly. 'If any of this is true, the Yono's power has limits.' he said. 'It can only be used when someone sets the Yono free and agrees to walk his path. That seems to be the trade-off. The Yono has massive power, but if the person who frees him is defeated, the Yono is defeated too.'

Kim pounded a fist into her palm. 'Monkey Fist was released by Maze.' she said. 'That means if we can defeat _him_...'

'Then Monkey Fist could turn Maze to stone and set _him _walking the Yono's path.' said Wade, nodding. 'It might also mean that Monkey Fist will be back, but at least he'll be _normal_ Monkey Fist instead of supercharged-Yono-stone-Monkey Fist.'

'Either way, we'd be down one villain.' said Kim. 'And if we're lucky, then as part of the Yono's curse, if we defeat Maze, then Monkey Fist will have to undo everything that _he's_ done - including whatever they did to Ron!'

Wade nodded again. 'That's just guessing though. But it's as good a guess as I can come up with, given the data.'

'At least when they make their move I'll be ready.' Kim said, standing up. 'I just wish we knew when that would be - and what they're waiting for...'

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

Monkey Fist stood in the midst of the cavernous mountain lair. His face was twisted with effort. For the first time since being released from his imprisonment, he felt weary. But this was not a physical weariness. It was much deeper. As discomforting as it was, he still felt grateful in some measure. It was a change of pace that he was able to feel _anything_. His mind drifted back several days, to the time when both of them had returned from the manor to the lair.

_He was standing about ten yards away from a wooden perch. Seated on the perch was a crow, which cocked it's head, eyeing him curiously. Monkey Fist glared back at it in frustration. From off to the side, Maze's voice spoke. 'Again.' he said._

_Monkey Fist turned his eyes to Maze. 'A moment if you please.' he said. 'This is not as easy as it looks.'_

_Maze smirked. 'As it looks like you are doing nothing, that may not be saying much.' he said. 'We have been at this for nearly three days with no progress that I can see.' He glanced down at Monkey Fist's left hand, and saw the mark of the Yono flickering dimly, and an irritated grimace on his face. 'Control yourself.' said Maze quickly. 'It was not meant as an insult against you. That part of the Yono's strength we know of, but unleashing it inside this lair would be foolish.'_

_Monkey Fist closed his stone eyes and the mark faded. He opened his eyes again and looked at his hand. 'I can unlock that power, but I can't control how it behaves.' he said. 'Not as the Yono did. That will take time and practice, and it is too dangerous to attempt for the moment. The other power eludes me, and my research has no information on it.'_

_'Then let us proceed with what we know.' said Maze. 'We know that the Yono's destructive power is unleashed by your anger. Perhaps the other ability we seek is tapped by a different emotion.'_

_'Perhaps.' said Monkey Fist. 'But emotions are not easy to summon on command. The Yono may have known tricks for doing so, but I do not.'_

_Maze smiled ruefully. 'There is time yet, I suppose.' he said. 'But we are very close. That should be some motivation.'_

And so it had gone on. Monkey Fist had spent several days in labored concentration, trying to force up an array of emotions, testing them to see if it triggered anything from the Yono's power. But so far nothing had happened. He had spent so much time staring at the perch and the crow that their images were welded into his mind, seeing them even when he turned away.

He stared at the crow again for long minutes. Still nothing happened except for the brief times when it flew to one of the tables where Maze had set out food and water for it. Otherwise it simply remained on its perch, staring back at him. Monkey Fist ground his stone teeth. He was truly growing to despise the bird. It seemed to mock him with its indifference. _'Yes...'_ he thought, and his eyes narrowed. _'I truly hate that bird...'_

And Maze was awakened from his rest across the cavern by a bright yellow glow that flared up like a sun brought inside. He looked over to where Monkey Fist stood and saw the mark of the Yono glowing bright on his left hand. Twin yellow beams of light lanced out from his eyes and locked onto the crow, which had flinched as if it were about to take flight. But before it could move, the black color of its feathers lightened to gray and it became rough in appearance. The light then faded, and Monkey Fist hunched over with his large hands on his knees. He was not gasping, but everything about his posture conveyed a sudden exhaustion.

There was a grating _clunk_, and Maze saw the crow lying on the floor of the cavern. He quickly walked over and picked it up in his hands. The bird had been turned to stone, its entire body frozen. Tenderly, he carried it over to one of the stone tables and set it down. Petrified, the features on the crow's feathers seemed somehow more intricate and beautiful than if it were flesh. No sculptor on earth could make a stone replica as detailed as this. He glanced back towards the twin statues which stood vigil at the entrance of the tunnel leading out of the cavern. They looked childishly crude by comparison.

Monkey Fist shambled wearily to his side. His voice was labored and he leaned heavily on the edge of the table. 'What other abilities the Yono had I don't know.' he said. 'But these two I _do_ know; it's ability to destroy - and its ability to turn creatures to stone.'

Maze nodded, still awestruck by what he was seeing. 'How was it done?'

'You were right.' Monkey Fist answered. 'While anger summons the power of destruction, it seems the power of stone is triggered by _hate_.' He leaned over and picked up a seven-pound sledge hammer, holding it out. 'Well?' he said. 'What are you waiting for? The time has come to see whether the plan will work, or if we have merely been wasting our time.'

Maze took the hammer reluctantly. He looked down at the bird, hesitating. 'There must be another way.' he said. 'To destroy it would be a crime against nature...'

'Go ahead and try.' said Monkey Fist, a smile on his lips. 'You won't be able to.' Maze gently tapped the crow with the hammer. But not one fiber of its feathers broke. Monkey Fist chuckled. 'Surely you can hit harder than _that_?' he said. Maze glared, then struck a second time with a sharper tap. Again, no damage seemed to come over the bird.

Monkey Fist watched patiently as Maze struck again and again, becoming bolder each time and striking with increasing force until he was hitting with all his strength. But not even a chip was to be seen breaking off.

Only when Maze paused, sweating and catching his breath, did Monkey Fist speak again. 'You see?' he said. 'When the power of the Yono petrifies a victim, they don't turn into ordinary stone. It's enchanted - much stronger than anything found on this earth.'

Maze wiped his brow and looked down at the petrified crow, and his eyes were dancing with anticipation.

'I have seen it with my own eyes.' said Monkey Fist. 'Kim Possible was turned to stone by the Yono. She fell from the top of the Yono shrine - a drop of over forty feet onto another stone surface. Any statue made of normal stone would have been pulverized. I expected the satisfaction of watching her shatter into a thousand pieces. But she sustained no damage whatsoever.'

'And this power still lives within you.' said Maze quietly. 'I suspected through my research - but this is beyond my expectations...'

'Now couple it with your own power.' said Monkey Fist. 'Let us see what happens.'

Maze nodded and stood silently for a moment, concentrating hard. He took a metal brand from his pouch and tied it to his palm, then began to chant.

_Emet - Sipimottakiksi,  
Nikaahtomaana nitaanistsi'toyiiwa..._

Dark shadows crept out from the surrounding walls of the lair, swirling around Maze like black smoke. He gritted his teeth and continued to chant.

_Emet - Sipimottakiksi,  
Nikaahtomaana nitaanistsi'toyiiwa!_

He laid his hand on the left wing of the crow statue. There was a hiss and a plume of smoke and Maze stepped back, gasping for breath. Three strange characters were branded onto the left wing of the crow. Otherwise, nothing seemed to have happened.

'_Command_ it.' said Monkey Fist, his voice quietly eager.

Maze paused a moment. Then he said, _'Arise._'

And the crow began to move. Stiffly, it rolled and rose to a perching position. It cocked its head and looked up at Maze, as if waiting for more orders.

Monkey Fist laughed softly. 'Well done.' he said. 'We have the weapons and the magic. Your plan _will_ work.'

Maze looked back at him. 'My main concern at the start still has not been resolved.' he said. 'Even bringing one statue to life requires great effort for me. And it is obvious that using the power of the Yono is a great strain on you. Though your body has limitless endurance, it is a different strength that fuels the Yono - strength of will and spirit - which your physical endurance will _not_ improve...'

'True indeed.' said Monkey Fist. 'Which is why we have labored to gather components for the machine. I promised you a solution to that problem. And that solution is already in our hands. Now all that remains... is a field test.' And he glanced over at the machine, which hummed and whirred as if it too was waiting to be commanded.

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

Kim was getting ready for bed after nearly three gut-wrenching days in which nothing had happened. She knew Wade had been working hard, but hadn't found anything either. Kim had sighed during one of her lessons at school and reflected on past missions, comparing them to the sitch she was now going through. In other missions, she had laughed at the pride and ego of her super-villain adversaries. They were so impatient to carry out their schemes, so sure that their plans were flawless, that they acted too quickly and left themselves vulnerable. Kim had often wondered why none of them ever learned from their mistakes, and wished darkly that Maze and Monkey Fist were more like Drakken.

Monkey Fist and Maze were playing a very cold game. They were moving slowly, cautiously, and making sure their actions were calculated and measured. It was a feeling she didn't like in the slightest, the main reason being that it delayed getting more information about Ron and how to bring him back. She had planned out her own moves very carefully in anticipation of when she found Monkey Fist again. But it still hinged on him moving back out into the open.

She finished washing up and was going back into her bedroom when she saw Rufus. He was looking at one of the pictures Kim had on her nightstand near the bed. One was of herself and Ron standing arm in arm. Rufus looked sadly up at Kim and squeaked, and to her surprise it seemed as if Rufus was actually speaking. 'Hmm-hmmm... Ron...'

A feeling of helplessness struck Kim and she bit her lip, putting her hand on Rufus's head and petting him softly. 'I know.' she said. 'I _know_...'

Later in the night, Rufus lay curled and sleeping in his basket. Kim, however, slept fitfully. Her dreams were troubled with visions of Monkey Fist, indestructible and laughing, with Ron reaching out to her as he disappeared into a black vortex of shadow.

'Ron...' she called out in her sleep.

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

_In the spirit world, Ron was trying to stave off boredom. Now that he was sure he was in no danger, he was trying everything he knew to keep himself occupied. What he was waiting for, he wasn't sure. Nothing he had tried had opened any 'doors' in the mists around him. He'd even concentrated hard and been able to use his Mystical Monkey Power, but it made no difference. Everything remained gray, phantom-like and indistinct._

_Rhonda had stayed quietly by his side, saying nothing. She whimpered occasionally, is if fighting some kind of dread or discomfort. Ron was just wondering whether he felt like trying to sleep when he heard something that sent a jolt of shock running through him. Faint and echoing, as if from a great distance, he heard a voice._

'Ron...'

_He glanced over at Rhonda, but she didn't move and didn't seem to have heard anything. Then the mists in front of him seemed to swirl and part, and something took shape in front of him, as if he were viewing it through a foggy window._

_'Kim!' he shouted, seeing her face. She looked like she was asleep, but it was definitely her._

_Rhonda jerked and flailed with surprise at Ron's shout. 'What?' she shouted. 'What did you do that for?'_

_Ron ignored her. 'Kim!' he yelled again. 'Come on KP, wake up! I'm right here, look at me!'_

_Rhonda looked back and forth. 'Whadda you mean "Kim"?' she said. 'Who are you yelling at?'_

_Ron sputtered and pulled Rhonda next to him, pointing her head at the dim window that swam in front of him. 'It's Kim, look!'_

_'Look where?' Rhonda said, sounding frustrated._

_'She's right there, can't you see her?' he yelled._

_'I don't see anything but the mist channel!' she shouted back. _

_'Kim...!' Ron cried out, but even as he did so, the window in front of him seemed to be fading, spreading out, and the image it showed blended into the gray mists until once again there was nothing else to be seen. 'Kim...!' he yelled at the top of his lungs..._

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

'Ron!' Kim shouted, jerking awake. She whirled her head back and forth in the darkness, her breath coming in gasps. In her dream, she had heard Ron calling out to her, telling her to wake up. It had seemed so real, but as she looked around through the night shadows, she saw only the dim, familiar shapes of the things in her room.

She laid back down, breathing hard, pulling herself together. _'Easy girl,'_ she thought. _'It was just a dream...'_ She couldn't afford to wig out. Ron needed her rock solid, to bring him back safe and sound. She felt her heartbeat returning to normal, but sleep did not return so easily.

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

_There was nothing to pace on, but Ron was still pacing back and forth. 'I'm telling you I saw her!' he was saying. 'I heard her...'_

_Rhonda looked upset. 'That's not fair!' she said. 'How come you can see her, but I can't see Grimm?'_

_Ron was too excited to answer. 'She's looking for me...' he said. 'I've got to find a way to point her the right direction... What IS the right direction?'_

_Rhonda persisted. 'Well how did you do it just then?'_

_'How would I know?' said Ron, impatient at the interruption of his train of thought. 'I'm just doofus-boy, remember?'_

_Rhonda flinched. 'Sorry...' she said softly._

_Ron waved his hands in front of him as if it would somehow gather clarity to his mind. 'OK - she needs to find me. We can start by figuring out exactly where we are.' He looked around. 'Well, there's nothing to see. Nothing to hear. Nothing to do...' _

_'So... we're in Wyoming?' said Rhonda._

_Ron snickered. 'Good one!' he said. 'But if we were in Wyoming there would be some world-class steak houses...'_

_'Guess so.' said Rhonda, putting a hand on her stomach. 'But I'm not really hungry...'_

_Ron paused. 'Me neither!' he said. 'And that's... just not right!' He thought about it more. 'It really isn't right - this is totally wrong! We must have been here at least couple of days, but I'm not hungry at all! I've missed dinner, breakfast, second breakfast...'_

_'And brunch, elevensies and afternoon tea!' Rhonda piped in. They both sighed wistfully._

_'I loved that movie...' they both said at the same time, then looked at each other awkwardly._

_'But the point is, I should be ravenous and I'm not!' said Ron. 'Come to think of it, I don't feel tired either. And I haven't needed to... use the facilities.' he ended sheepishly. 'How about you?'_

_'Ew, gorchy!' said Rhonda, wincing. 'But... no. Good thing too, 'cuz that would be...'_

_'Awkweird.' they both said together, and they paused._

_'So...' Ron went on again. 'I guess this could be some kind of stasis trap where time never really passes.'_

_Rhonda looked as if she were remembering something, then spoke with a faraway look in her eye. 'I was first struck by the absence of time. Having depended on it so completely as both a measure of myself, and my life...'_

_And with a gasp, Ron picked up where she paused. 'Moving backwards into the perpetual night - it consumes all purpose, indeed all passion and will.'_

_Their eyes met. 'X-Files.' said Rhonda._

_'Season 3!' said Ron._

_'The Blessing Way!' they both said, smiling, then they looked off into the void and sighed again. 'I loved that episode...' they said together._

_Then Rhonda jerked her head back to him. 'Wait... Anasazi - Indians! Monkey Fist wasn't alone at the lab. Maze was there with him! He'd hijacked Kim's body, but it was him!'_

_'Maze?' said Ron._

_'No, it's pronounced mah-zay.' said Rhonda. 'But he's... a shadow shaman. I can't explain it all, but he uses bad mojo with a spirit guide twist. Maybe we're in some kind of... spirit trap.'_

_'We're ghosts?' said Ron, looking panicked. He started pinching and slapping himself, he even sniffed his armpits. 'But how can we be ghosts? I can feel myself, I can feel my heart beating...'_

_Rhonda had a faraway look in her eyes, as if thinking back. 'I don't think we're ghosts.' she said. 'This isn't the first time that weird spirit stuff started happening when Maze showed up. It might be how you saw your stuck-up GF just now.'_

_Ron stared. 'Well he's your fellow bad guy, can't you call in a favor and get him to show us the way out?'_

_Rhonda laughed mirthlessly. 'Maze's not my pal.' she said. 'He threw me and Grimm off a cliff the last time we met.' She paused. 'Grimm knew it was Maze back at the lab.' she said softly. 'He's bound to figure out what they did to us. Ooooh, I wouldn't want to be Maze once Grimm tracks him down!'_

_'Uh... hello?' said Ron. 'He's got Rocky Baboona for backup!'_

_'If I know Grimm, he's already figuring a way around that.' Rhonda smiled. 'There's no way they'll stand a chance against Grimm once he works out a plan.' said Rhonda confidently. 'Not unless... they do something unexpected.'_

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

Maze stood before a hollowed recess inside the lair. He had been watching Monkey Fist as he read books, worked with tools and set up yet more machines. At last Monkey Fist stepped back, looking at the end result with some satisfaction. 'What _is_ this?' Maze asked, looking at the construct with a heavy scowl.

Monkey Fist smiled indulgently. 'It is called an Immersion Pod.' he said. 'It was developed by Everlot Inc. so that people who play their... _video games_ would be able to feel as if they were really inside the virtual worlds instead of watching from the outside.'

Maze snorted in distaste. 'So the white man prefers a fake world of illusion and deception to the reality of the natural world. That does not surprise me.'

Monkey Fist shrugged. 'Yes well anyway, they used to use caps, but their latest versions have refined the experience with these pods which provide a sense of total immersion.'

Maze looked as if he were losing interest. 'And what does this... _game_ have to do with the plan?'

Monkey Fist chuckled. 'Not the game - the technology.' He pointed to the many wires and cables that threaded and curled from the machines on the table, now connected and worming into the Immersion Pod so it looked like an egg-shaped spider in the center of a metallic web. 'I am no technical genius, but I have connected the Immersion Pod to the machines we have already gathered.'

'To what end?' said Maze.

Monkey Fist's smile widened. 'Why, to solve the problem which has vexed you.' he answered.

Maze looked almost nervous. 'Surely you do not expect me to sit within that... monstrosity?' he said.

'Not without a demonstration.' Monkey Fist answered, and he strode to the Immersion Pod, which hissed open as he touched a latch on its side. He stood in a metal framework that had what looked like metal clamps to hold a person's arms, legs, back and neck. They curled around Monkey Fist as the hatch closed.

Maze felt a shiver at the sight, which seemed unearthly and sinister to him. But he looked in through the plastic window and saw a metallic cap lowering onto Monkey Fist's brow, with a strange pair of goggles swiveling down and covering his eyes. 'Remember!' he said, raising his voice, not sure if Monkey Fist could hear inside the Pod. 'The test may fail, or attract too much attention if we use a heavily populated region. We should start someplace... _small._'

'Do not worry.' Monkey Fist said, his voice slightly muffled. 'I am quite familiar with the geography of England. And I think I know just the place...'

Inside the pod, Monkey Fist was gripping a pair of handles. He flicked open a cap that covered a red button on the grip near his right hand, then pressed it. Maze stepped back as power from the generators flooded through the wires into the machines with a throbbing whine...

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

The town of Graniton was a quiet and rustic. The inhabitants were fiercely proud of their home, even though it was clear that it was well on it's way to becoming a ghost town. With only about twenty houses and one store, life in Graniton would be described by any visitor as 'quaint' if they were polite, and 'dull' if they weren't.

Nestled in a mountain valley, and with only one long road connecting it to a highway, hardly anyone went there unless they needed to. And besides population, the need to be there was also in short supply. They had some farming, a nearby lake and a spectacular view, but besides that, Graniton had little to offer by way of trade or tourism.

The few children who had been born there had moved to other cities once they were older and educated, having little taste for the quiet life, yearning for something more modern. As a result, the town was dwindling. There were barely twenty residents left, mostly middle-aged or older.

This problem wove in and out of nearly every conversation for the remaining persons who dwelt there, but as much as they spoke of it, none of them could come up with a way to solve it. Many seemed resigned to the fact that their town would one day fade out of existence completely, though they would stoutly deny it if asked.

Two such men were walking home from the farming fields just outside of town after a long day's work tending the crops. Both were similarly dressed in brown trousers, gray jackets and dark brown caps. They were looking forward to an evening of relaxation at the local pub, though it was sure to be quiet.

'How's your back, Clay?' asked one, a short stocky man who looked like he might have been a prize fighter in his youth. 'Still botherin' ye?'

'Aye.' said Clayton, who was taller and thinner, but still looked hale. 'Not much of a trade-off for bein' able to tell when it's about to rain, I'll tell you. How 'bout you, Slate? Heard from your boy lately? Say anything new?'

'Ar.' Slate answered, shaking his head. 'Same ol' thing - _I'll come back to visit soon when I get the time_.'

'Young folks today - always too busy t'remember their roots.' said Clayton, shaking his head. 'If it's more time he's needin', there's plenty of work to be done back here that'll leave his evenings free an' still keep a roof over his head.'

'Aye.' said Slate. 'But again it's the same ol' thing - _I want a life that's a bit more exciting_.'

Clayton sniffed. 'Excitement? Why there's plenty to be had here. Just because we haven't got a disco, or whatever it is those young folks call 'em these days...'

They had reached the turnoff on the main road of the town that led to the pub. They could see the building ahead of them, a dim yellow light streaming out from it's main doors. They had both turned and were headed towards it when they noticed another yellow light growing around them.

The sun was setting and the sky had been darkening, but it suddenly grew brighter as if the sun had reappeared in the sky. The light from the door of the pub seemed to be getting dimmer by comparison. Clayton and Slate looked up and above the canopy of gray clouds, they saw a glowing spot that was getting brighter.

Doors and windows were opening here and there as the other residents looked out curiously at the light in the sky. The pub owner stepped out and stood beside Slate and Clayton. 'What the _devil_ is that...?' he asked, though neither Slate nor Clayton answered.

The clouds were pierced. A beam of yellow lanced down from the sky, bathing the entire town in its glow.

Clayton gasped. A strange feeling of numbness was creeping over him. And while it removed the pain from his back, this brought him no happiness, for his entire body was stiffening. He could no longer move his hands. He turned his head to look at Slate, and even his neck was growing stiff, immobile. He saw a similar look of surprise on Slate's face, which seemed as if his very skin was turning gray and rough...

After a few seconds, the light disappeared. Dusk fell again, as dim and gloomy as it had been before. All was utterly silent. Over twenty statues stood in the streets, or looking out of doors and windows.

All questions about Graniton's problems had, in less than ten seconds, been rendered completely moot.

Coming Soon:  
Chapter 10

_Whether remote or direct, men prize me highly.  
What am I?_

_Author: Special thanks to one and all who voted the "All Things Probable" series as "Best Series",  
and Grimm Probable as "Best Original Character" in the Golden Fannies awards!_


	11. Ch 10: Control

A Friend In Darkness

All Things Probable 3

A Kim Possible Fanfiction

by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and its affiliates, etc. etc.

Chapter 10

Control

_Or: No Stones Unturned_

Maze stood nervously in the Immersion Pod, surrounded by wires. The hum of electrical power was all around him and he seemed almost afraid. 'This device is alien to me.' he said, staring at the wrist and leg harnesses as of they were poisonous snakes.

Monkey Fist stood patiently outside the pod. 'Nevertheless, if you wish to proceed with your plan, you _will _make use of it.' he said, and he glanced back to where the other devices stood hooked to the pod by their cables and connectors. 'An explanation of the science may be lost on you, but to set your mind at ease I will attempt it. You are aware of course that many electronic devices called satellites are in orbit around this earth?'

Maze nodded, glowering. 'Of course, I am not a child.' he said.

Monkey Fist bowed slightly. 'Then you also know the purpose of many of these satellites is communication - the broadcasting and reception of signals of various kinds.' Maze nodded again, and Monkey Fist continued. 'As much as it grieves me to admit, I took this concept from... _Ron Stoppable_.' and he said these last words with a pained grimace. 'In an encounter several months ago, he created a device called the Mega Synaptic Transducer, which reversed the good and evil tendencies of everyone on earth.'

'I remember...' said Maze, but he did not elaborate any further. He waited for Monkey Fist to continue.

'When the Transducer was destroyed and I was freed from its influence, I was struck not by the Transducer itself, but by how the buffoon had managed to broadcast his signal over the entire globe. It took some time and research, but I learned that he made use of technology that allowed him to hijack the many satellites around this planet and use them to broadcast his signal.'

Maze again nodded. 'I see.' he said. 'And this... machine you have built will do the same thing?'

'Not exactly.' he answered. He looked again at the Immersion Pod and the devices connected to it. 'As I have said, I'm not a scientist, nor an engineer. I have not _duplicated_ the device the buffoon created. To accommodate my lack of skill, this machine is much simpler and much less powerful. For the moment, we will only be able to use it to control one satellite at a time, and affect small areas. But there is the added bonus that our labors will be untraceable.'

Maze's eyes narrowed. 'Small areas?' he said.

Monkey Fist chuckled. 'Only when you consider how vast the planet is.' he said. 'Rest assured, I am already making arrangements to _expand_ the reach of this machine. You have seen the benefits so far. I am still drained, as I was when I first used the Yono's power. But this machine enabled me to affect the entire town of Graniton, not just one individual at a time. There is some fine tuning that must be done - after all, this is the first time this technology has been tested in broadcasting _mystical_ energies rather than electronic signals. But I'm certain your own powers can be used similarly.'

Maze shook his head doubtfully. 'I still have my reservations.' he said. 'There is nothing _natural_ about this device.'

'Not natural, you say? It is made of metal, which comes from the earth. It is powered by lightning - electrical power harnessed and channeled into a form that can be used safely.' Maze was frowning, but did not move from the Pod. Monkey Fist continued. 'If it helps,' he said, 'Think of it as a tool. A lens that will focus your natural gifts and allow them to be used in their purest form.'

Maze sighed, but gripped the handsets on the armatures. Monkey Fist smiled, and closed the door to the Immersion Pod. Maze flinched as the harnesses snapped into place and the helmet lowered over his eyes. 'Relax.' said Monkey Fist, moving over to the computers nestled among the devices on the stone tables. 'It will not harm you. On the contrary, I think you'll find the results quite _visionary_.' And he increased the power.

Maze gasped. The reach of his power and his awareness of shadows had always been like a field around him. It was the field of awareness in which he could communicate with crows, and work his shadow-medicine. But it had always extended only a few dozen feet around him. Now that field suddenly encompassed several square miles. He could _feel_ the presence of every crow within that field, and knew that they were suddenly aware of him.

He stood as if in a wide grassy field, with legions of black crows swirling in the skies above him, their harsh croaks sounding in his ears, promising their obedience. And he smiled, spreading out his arms, issuing the call...

Monkey Fist stood near the entrance to their lair. Beside him was a large box, filled with hundreds of tungsten metal spikes. He raised his head. In the distance, a black cloud was moving against the wind, coming closer.

Dozens of crows fluttered down, their cries filling the air, and more were approaching from further away. They clustered around Monkey Fist, each one taking a spike, which Monkey Fist fitted patiently to their beaks. As each one was fitted, it turned and flew away, wheeling and flying towards the village of Graniton. Maze guided them carefully, amazed that he was able to direct the actions of so many at once.

Monkey Fist went back inside the lair once a sufficient number of birds had been fitted with the spikes. He carefully monitored the machines. He was concerned about the time it had taken the crows to come the lair, and how long it would take them to reach Graniton. There was a fair distance between the two locations, and with the machine's current limitations, there was a limited window in which to operate at full effectiveness. He anxiously watched every tick of the clock on the desk.

In Graniton, wind blew through the silent streets. Lights shone pale from some opened doors and onto the darkened streets. The townspeople stood motionless as the night continued. Then from a distance, a faint sound began to wash over the silent town, growing steadily louder. There was a sudden flutter of wings as crows sped over Graniton, nearly invisible shapes that circled in the night blackened sky above.

The crows were lighting onto the arms of each petrified resident. With the metal spikes on their beaks, they pecked and scratched until each statue had three strange symbols etched onto the backs of their left hands...

Monkey Fist quickly approached the Immersion Pod where Maze remained, the helmet still over his eyes, his mouth slightly open. 'Can you hear me?' Monkey Fist called through the plastic shield of the Immersion Pod.

'Yes...' Maze answered, this his voice was a low whisper.

'The work is only partly complete.' Monkey Fist said. 'The marks have been made, now you must _set _them...'

Maze nodded, then began a muttering chant.

_Emet - Sipimottakiksi,_

_Nikaahtomaana nitaanistsi'toyiiwa..._

'Concentrate!' Monkey Fist called. 'Focus your will on Graniton.'

The night shadows swirled unnaturally across Graniton like a vast black creature. The crows took flight and scattered, but the twenty petrified citizens of the town did not move. The marks etched on their hands suddenly glowed red and smoked, until they were branded black in the stone.

'It... it is done!' said Maze in triumph, but even as he spoke, his vision of Graniton, the crows and the statues faded to nothingness. He gasped and shook within the Immersion Pod for a moment, then heard the faint hiss of the hatch opening.

'Easy...' said Monkey Fist, helping Maze out of the harnesses and the helmet. 'No need to panic.'

'What happened?' said Maze, looking back at the Pod. 'It stopped working...'

'There is nothing wrong.' Monkey Fist answered. 'As I said, at the moment we can only control _one_ satellite at a time. The satellites still move within their orbits, and the one we were using just now has passed out of range. It will return eventually, and others will be within reach as well...'

'When?' said Maze eagerly. 'The marks have been set - we must see if the medicine has worked!'

Monkey Fist laughed. 'Only a short while ago, you were afraid to use this machine.' he said dryly. 'Perhaps you may yet be converted to the miracles of technology. Patience!' he added, as Maze looked back towards the Immersion Pod. 'Too much of a good thing and all that. You may be too elated to notice, but you are quite as drained now when you animated statues without the machine's aid.'

And indeed Maze fell suddenly to his knees, wheezing. 'Then we must... go to the town ourselves.' he said. 'I must know...'

'I agree.' said Monkey Fist. 'But rest for a short while so you can conceal us properly. There is no particular rush - the town is backward and isolated. And I think it is safe to say, the residents are _not_ going anywhere.'

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Grimm Probable was soaring through the air on the _Ksikkihkíni_, keeping an eye out for birds or other obstacles in the sky. He gripped the handlebars tightly, his expression was dour behind his helmet. Rueful's head poked out of Grimm's pack and over his shoulder, his whiskers bent nearly backwards by the rushing wind.

'No dice, huh?' Jade's voice sounded timid and worried, as if afraid of how Grimm might react.

Grimm's eyes flicked momentarily to the screen on the dashboard as he answered. 'The objective failed.' he said. 'But I wouldn't say the trip was wasted. I'm coming away from it with two things I didn't have before. First, the knowledge of where Rhonda is now, with an inkling how to get her back.' Grimm paused for a moment.

'And... the second?' Jade ventured.

'Sore knees.' Grimm muttered.

'Well what do we _do_?' Jade said. 'I mean, if it was a question of busting her out of a high-tech lair or a prison I could do it in cracker-jack time. But I don't have an IP router in the spirit world!' and she made exaggerated air quotes with her fingers as she said the last two words.

'I'm not giving up on getting help from the Great Bear Spirit.' Grimm said. 'But... this is gonna take time. I'm not sure what the Great Bear wants or if he even _wants_ anything. However he operates, it's not something that can be programmed, categorized or easily referenced.'

Jade raised an eyebrow. 'Or done at the drop of a hat?'

Grimm shook his head. 'No.' he said. 'But while I'm finding out how to commune with the Great Bear or until it actually happens, there's always another route we can try - finding Maze and _persuading_ him to let Rhonda go.'

'Uh huh...' said Jade, her voice sounding nervous. 'And... you're _sure_ you want to do it this way?'

'Positive.' Grimm answered. 'I've gone over things in my mind a hundred times, and it's our best option. I've already sent out a feeler. Hopefully it'll smooth the way a bit.'

Jade ran a hand over her face. '_Cheese_ Grimm, you've spent half a year winding her up - you really think she's just gonna roll over and play along?'

'I don't like it either Jade.' Grimm said. 'It means undoing some pretty neat work. But this time, to get the job done, we may have to do a deal with the angels.'

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Kim spent another harried day at school. It was hard to focus on her studies, as distracted as she was. Her dream the other night had still rattled her - as real as it had felt. On the plus side, she was finding that taking care of Rufus wasn't nearly as much of a long term hassle as she thought it might be.

It wasn't so much Rufus' needs or all the items on his list that had been difficult the first time around. It had been Ron's constant phone calls, asking if she had remembered each item on the list which had made it seem more difficult than it actually was. Without Ron pestering her though, she found Rufus quite manageable. Though again she felt empty inside, thinking she would gladly put up with the calls because it would have meant he was back.

Barkin had apparently been convinced that Ron was really missing, because he gave up heaping extra homework on him and having Kim pick it up. When she asked if he had any more, he muttered vaguely about waiting to let Ron finish his current assignments, then waved her off.

She felt momentarily touched. 'Thanks Mr. Barkin.' she said softly. He merely waved her off again with an incoherent grunt. Cheer practice hadn't gone quite as smoothly. Bonnie was still Bonnie, and even Ron's absence didn't stop her from making her snarky comments. She seemed to think that while taunting Kim about Ron may be off limits, she was certainly able to taunt Kim personally. But Kim had been dealing with such things since she first made cheerleader, and it didn't faze her much.

Work also seemed dull and empty, even though Monique was there. Maybe because Monique more than anyone else seemed to be treating Kim like a spun glass ornament that might break if she said the wrong thing.

An hour before end of her shift, Kim was putting all the clothes back on the shelves and hangers which the customers had pulled off and rumpled over the course of the day. 'Why don't you go home, girlfriend?' Monique called from behind the counter. 'I can close up.'

Kim saw through it at once. 'Monique - you've already covered for me. I can handle it.'

Monique sighed. 'Kim, you've been surrounded by _the_ hippest fashions all evening, but you look like a zombie without any brains to eat.'

'Gorchy...' Kim said, but with only the shadow of a chuckle.

'The point is, you may as well go home because I can tell you're not really here.' Monique leaned over the counter. 'You're planning out ways to find your BF - or planning to plan out ways to find him.'

Kim looked at her keenly and sadly. 'Going home won't do me any good right now, Mon.' she said. 'I don't _know_ where Ron is - even Wade doesn't know. We have to wait for Monkey Fist to make a move and then make him tell us what they did.' She sighed. 'The waiting game _tanks_.'

'There anything I can do?' Monique said kindly, then immediately bit her lip. _'Snap, that sounded so stupid!'_ she thought.

But Kim was smiling and shaking her head as she continued to restock the shelves. 'Not just now.' she said softly. And neither she nor Monique spoke again until the shift ended.

She was driving home after work when her dashboard let out a familiar four-note beep. 'What's the sitch, Wade?' she said eagerly. 'Did you find...'

'Woah, Kim! It's not about Monkey Fist.' Wade said quickly, and Kim stopped. When Kim didn't say anything else, he went on. 'There's a hit on your site. An investigation job. A man named Grayson Slate has been trying to call his father in a town called Graniton - a small town in rural England. He hasn't been able to get through. None of the phones in town are answering and he wants someone to check and make sure everything there is all right.'

Kim shook her head. 'Wade - I hate turning down jobs. But doesn't this sound like something the phone companies in England should be doing instead of us?'

'At least it's not a puma in a tree.' said Wade. Kim didn't take her eyes off the road, but Wade could see she was glaring. 'Kim - I know it's not what you're hoping for. But maybe you could use the distraction...'

'I don't _want_ to be distracted from finding Ron!' Kim said. 'This mission sounds like a zero.'

'It's someone who still needs help.' said Wade. 'And I think Ron would have been glad there were no villains involved...'

Kim seemed to deflate slightly. 'Way to play the 'Ron would have' card.' she said, but seemed to smile again. 'All right, I'll pick up my gear from home. Do you feel up to sidekicking?'

Wade seemed startled. 'Me?'

'I think Ron would have wanted you to come in his place.' Kim said, her smile widening.

Wade sputtered. 'Oh... _you_...' he said. 'Well, are you _sure_? The last time I came along, a mansion exploded...'

Kim's eyes flicked down for a moment. 'I think I've already done the exploding manor bit for the time being.' she said. 'Lightning can't strike twice, right?'

Wade shrugged. 'I'll fix up a ride. Swing by and pick me up once you're geared.'

'Please and thank you!'

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Mrs. Possible was going through the mail in the kitchen when she heard the front door open. Firm, thumping footsteps ascending the stairs told her it was Kim. A few seconds later, she was pattering her way back down and rushing through the kitchen on her way to the door leading to the garage. 'Missionmomgottagobebacklaterloveyou!' she was saying, but Mrs. Possible held up an envelope.

'Letter for you Kim.' she said. 'You should take it before you go.'

Kim lurched as she paused, her hand reaching for the door, and sighed impatiently. 'If it's another college acceptance form or a credit card offer...'

'It's neither.' said Mrs. Possible. 'There's no return address, but it looks like a personal letter.'

Kim picked the envelope out of her mother's hand and opened it. Inside there was only one small square of paper, and on the paper was written a single sentence.

_Help me reach a friend in darkness._

Kim was confused, but then saw the initials "GP" at the bottom of the note. She glared, then wadded the note into a ball and threw it in the trash on her way out.

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'Thanks for letting us take the Sloth in the cargo hold, Clutch.' Kim said to a muscular man with a wide chin, a red jacket and silver hair. 'It'll save us a lot of time once we hit the UK.'

'Least I can do for the girl who found my missing co-pilot on that Amazon adventure.' replied Clutch, who smiled back at her while he worked the controls in the pilot seat.

Kim smiled faintly at him before returning to her seat towards the back of the cargo plane. She was still feeling glum, considering the mission a waste of time. But she buckled herself into her seat and took out the photograph of the missing person which Wade had scanned and given her. She memorized his features so she could recognize him at need.

In the next seat, Wade had on a pair of magnifying goggles and was tinkering with a pair of devices in his lap. A set of delicate tools were in a compartmentalized pouch on the armrest next to him and he looked very focused. 'What are you working on?' she said.

Wade was soldering a component in place and didn't look up. 'Just stuff I meant to finish at home later tonight...' he said.

His voice sounded like he was paying even less attention, so she resumed studying the photo. After several more minutes, Wade seemed to pause in his labors and she raised her voice again before he could get re-absorbed in his work. 'So how was it figured that it would be easier to send in a girl from half-way across the globe as opposed to just sending a cop car from any nearby city?' she said. 'I mean, everyone knows how I feel about wasting energy...'

Wade shrugged as he focused his goggles and began making adjustments with a needle-thin screwdriver. 'They're having trouble finding someone to get out there.' he said. 'Graniton is a really _small_ small town without a police station and no crimes are known to have taken place in decades. Plus, all the surrounding areas are stretched pretty thin. Something about having their people cleaning up at a site where someone's manor mysteriously got turned into a pile of rubble...' He let his voice trail off with a faint smile.

Kim sniffed and pretended to be studying the photograph again. But her thoughts drifted back to the note she had thrown away and wondering what it meant. Had Grimm really sent it? Was he just trying to dig further into her head or mislead her again? Was he in on the scam with Monkey Fist and Maze? She hadn't been sure at the UNIT lab, but there had been so much uncertainty and weirdness that she wasn't even sure about her uncertainty any longer.

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Maze and Monkey Fist stood in the main street in Graniton. Several crows were perched on the gables of the surrounding houses, sending an occasional echoing croak through the air. Monkey Fist looked at Maze and nodded. Maze nodded back, and then raised his staff.

_'Follow.'_

The gray figures of several statues around them began to move. From the thresholds and doors of the houses they came, silent except for the thumping of their feet, until they stood in a semi-circle in front of Maze and Monkey Fist.

Monkey Fist smiled. 'I doubt there are any prying eyes nearby.' he said. 'But just in case, let us move to the plains behind the town and conduct our tests there. It will be advantageous to the plan if you can order them to obey _my_ commands as well.'

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Clutch announced that they had reached the drop point. Kim and Wade entered the Sloth and buckled up. Wade reclined his seat as far as it would go, looking frightened.

The clamps were released and Kim saw Wade's hands clench around the armrests of his seat as the Sloth rolled forward and out of the cargo hold. His eyes were closed by the time they were clear of the plane and he was biting his lip when the Sloth's booster jets fired a few seconds later. 'This was more fun when I was just watching out of my screen...' he gasped.

Kim saw the road leading to Graniton far beneath and zooming up rapidly. Soon the tires touched down with a lurching squeal. 'Eyes open Wade, we're down.' she said. 'Graniton awaits!' They drove down the empty road and the mountains on either side loomed higher. A tiny clutch of houses and buildings could be seen in the distance, and before long they were there.

Kim exited the Sloth and Wade followed, seeming a lot less steady on his feet. They left the car parked by the side of the main road next to one of the houses. The sky was overcast and gloomy, though some rays of sun were leaking through the clouds to cast mottled patches of daylight on the nearby mountains. A gust of wind blowed, sending a plume of dust rolling down the street. A shutter caught by the breeze creaked faintly. They walked down the street, their footsteps echoing in their ears.

'Looks like England's party central.' Kim said, but her voice seemed to fall dead even as she spoke, and the humor was leached out. They were about half way down the main street. The atmosphere was like a museum or a library where any sound felt somehow forbidden and unnatural. Nothing moved. They saw the doors to several of the houses standing open, and some lights were still on. 'So where is everyone?'

Wade was moving his scanner back and forth as they walked. 'It's zero across the board.' he said, his voice lowered as if he were afraid of disturbing something. 'Total weirdness - no life readings, no sonic vibrations, no heat signatures - nothing.'

'Let's check inside the houses just to be sure.' said Kim. 'You take this side of the street, I'll take the other. We meet back here in ten.'

The search took a remarkably short amount of time. The houses were all unlocked, and small enough that going through them was no great chore. She called out occasionally as she searched, but no one answered. Each house was undisturbed, with no sign of any struggle. Some had meals sitting cold on the tables. It was as if everyone had simply gotten up and walked off into the blue, leaving their homes abandoned. She met with Wade again in the main street. 'Did you find anything?' she said.

Wade shook his head. 'Just like Flannan Isle.' he said.

Kim raised an eyebrow. 'Wade, if it wasn't in _Teen Scene_, I don't know it...'

Wade spoke in an eerily low voice.

_Aye: though we hunted high and low,__  
And hunted everywhere,__  
Of the three men's fate we found no trace  
Of any kind in any place,  
But a door ajar, and an untouched meal,  
And an overtoppled chair. _

Kim stared blankly at him. 'It's a famous English poem.' Wade said. 'I'll look it up for you... once we're away from here.' he glanced around nervously at the surrounding, empty homes.

'Well, before that happens, we should check the area around the village.' Kim said. 'Maybe there are tracks or something if they all walked off...'

Wade didn't seem sorry to leave the ghost town behind them. They went behind the houses on the west side of the street, and though Kim couldn't see anything, it wasn't long before Wade piped up. 'Got something!' he said. 'The scanner's showing a trail of heavy footsteps, leading off in that direction.' and he pointed to a rocky plain some distance away.

As they walked, Kim caught occasional glimpses of a footprint when they crossed dustier patches. But for the most part the terrain was hard and bare and showed nothing. When the town was starting to dwindle in the distance, they reached an area with several large boulders and outcroppings, and Wade's scanner seemed to lose the trail. He stopped and stood rotating in a small circle, sweeping the scanner around. After several seconds in which only the whirring of the scanner could be heard, she was about suggest going to higher ground. Then she felt a chill as she heard a voice speaking a short distance behind her.

'Well, well... _the cheer squad_. And before you ask - no, I never get tired of saying it.'

Kim turned, and standing a distance away on top of an outcropping of stone, Monkey Fist was staring down at her, his lips curled into an expression of calm smugness. 'Monkey Fist!' she said. 'What are _you_ doing here? What did you do to the people in this town?'

'What am _I_ doing here?' said Monkey Fist darkly, 'I was going to ask _you_ the same question.' He paused, looking down at them carefully. 'But I see that you weren't expecting to find me here. I suppose it's just another of the curious coincidences that keep drawing us together.'

'Yeah, you're a regular _beau_.' Kim answered. 'Speaking of which, are you ready to tell me what you did to _mine_ yet? Because if you don't start talking, what happened to your manor is gonna seem tame compared to what I've got in store for _you_.'

Monkey Fist seemed to sigh in exasperation. 'Another constant.' he said. 'Always saying you want to _talk_, but in the end your conversations are little more than leaping and kicking.'

'Only when the bad guys don't cooperate.' she growled.

'Very well.' said Monkey Fist, shaking his head. 'But before we begin - there's something I want to tell you. I _hate_ you, Kim Possible. I hate your chirpy optimism. I hate your constant meddling. I hate the way you're always somehow interfering with my plans. I hate you from the soles of your feet to the ends of your infernal, flippy red hair!'

Kim glared, wondering why Monkey Fist was taking time out to _insult_ her. But she looked and saw a light rising around him as he continued to rant. Then his eyes suddenly flared with a yellow light and twin beams lanced towards her.

'Kim!' Wade shouted, but ust as the beams struck her, a blue and white sphere of light expanded around her like a bubble and the yellow beams were deflected.

Wade rolled out the way, and when he looked up again, Kim's outfit and jacket had been torn apart by the field that surrounded her. She was dressed in a white body suit with bands of glowing blue. She stared back up at Monkey Fist, her face set, but very much unharmed and unpetrified.

'The battle suit!' Wade cheered. 'Way to go, Kim!'

'Interesting...' said Monkey Fist. But his voice was quivering and he hunched over as if a great weight had suddenly been laid on his shoulders. 'So nice to see you wore your Sunday best...'

'I wasn't sure when I'd meet up with you again, Monkey Fist.' Kim said. 'So I decided to bring the suit along, just in case.' Monkey Fist glared, but remained bent over, his teeth gritted. Kim smiled faintly. 'Looks like using the Yono's power takes a lot out of you.' she said. 'I wasn't expecting that, but I'll take every advantage that comes up.'

Monkey Fist sank to one knee. 'And you think this will enable you to win?' he snarled. 'There is more to my power than you guess, Kim Possible!'

'And I know more about your power than _you_ guess.' she answered. She went on, hoping to goad him into calling Maze for help, or otherwise revealing where he was. 'Give it up, Monkey Fist. Bring Ron back and maybe they'll let you put up some monkey wallpaper in cell block D! You can't beat me by yourself this time!'

Monkey Fist looked coldly at her. 'Perhaps you're right.' he said. Then he raised one hand and snapped his fingers, though the sound was more like two heavy stones grating and clunking against each other.

From around the rock where Monkey Fist was standing, on either side, several people stumped heavily forward until there was a group of about twenty standing between Kim and Monkey Fist. Kim and Wade stared in amazement. There were several men and women. All were dressed simply and all seemed to be forty years or older. There was even one that looked like a grandmother with a wooden cane.

But they were all made of stone. Their features were gray and rough, their eyes vacant and blank, their expressions flat and emotionless. Behind them, Monkey Fist was speaking, his voice still labored but full of triumphant amusement.

'What do you think of my new army?' he said, struggling to his feet. 'True, they're not monkey ninjas. In fact, they're quite rough around the edges. But I guarantee - they will _rock_ you!' Then looking down at the statues, he raised his voice. '_Destroy Kim Possible!'_

And they all charged forwards. Wade hastily drew back as the statues dogpiled on top of Kim, grappling and punching. But there was another flash of light and they were all hurled backwards as Kim's shield expanded. The statues rose and charged again, beating the shield with their fists, kicking and pushing.

Kim dropped the shield and in a blur of graceful motions, she dodged, weaved and twirled through their midst. The attackers smashed into each other, or were sent sliding as their own strikes missed. But again, they rose and attacked.

Monkey Fist was watching from his perch like an emperor spectating in a gladiatorial arena. Kim had blocked one statue's attack and was about to strike, her fist glowing blue. 'You asked what I've done with the residents of this town,' he said loudly. 'Before you do anything that might damage my army, you should know, they stand before you!'

Kim flinched, looking closer at the faces of her attackers. Among them, she could see now the same face in the photo she had studied on the flight over. The man they were searching for was attacking her with the others, but as a silent statue. She raised her shield just in time as a heavy blow struck from the side and sent her sprawling. She flipped and rose up again. The statues were slowly advancing, and Monkey Fist was still crowing triumphantly. 'They're unaware of pain of fear - you can't defeat them, Kim Possible! And even if you could, are you truly willing to destroy innocent lives just to get to me?'

Kim wasn't yet exerting herself heavily. The statues were strong, but slow, and none of them seemed to have any fighting skills. She was easily able to stay ahead of their blows, though it was just as well, as their punches and kicks were leaving small craters in the ground where they struck.

Still, they were relentless, and she was outnumbered. She herself didn't dare strike too hard. If the statues were really the former residents of Graniton, she didn't want to find out what shattering or breaking one of them might do. But they seemed as invulnerable as Monkey Fist had been in his manor, and nothing she did left so much as a scratch on any of them.

As she made another leap to evade four of them, she found herself clotheslined by the grandmother statue's wooden cane. She landed roughly, but rolled, thinking as she righted herself that she should be embarrassed that the granny had been the one to score a hit.

She glanced towards the boulder where Monkey Fist was overseeing the battle. He hadn't moved from his perch, and the scene rolled past her vision like shaky-cam footage as she continued fending off the statues. But she also caught a glimpse from the side of the boulder. A cloaked figure had stepped out and was also watching the fight. He had a mane of dark hair and two eagle feathers tied behind his left ear, and a pointed staff was in his hand. Kim felt a sudden surge of excitement. _Maze was here_.

At once, she felt as if the entire sitch had changed and the advantage was suddenly hers. She made a mental note to thank Wade for persuading her to going on this mission. Instead of agonizing at home and wondering where Ron was, she was now confronting the only two persons on Earth who had the answers. Luck had served her, and the plan she had contrived to set everything right again could be tried at once.

She waited until the statues had nearly surrounded her again, screening her from Maze's sight. Then just as they charged at her, Kim activated her booster soles and leaped high into the air. In a smooth arc, she sailed over Monkey Fist and straight down towards Maze. She saw the shadow shaman staring up at her in shock for one brief second before she landed a solid kick that sent him flying backwards. Maze slammed with a satisfying _thud_ into one of the boulders behind him and collapsed to the ground. His staff fell out of his hand and clattered to the stony ground.

Kim turned to face Monkey Fist, hearing his scream behind her. He was raising his arms, his mouth opening, but his movements were slowing. And then he stood frozen in place, his cry of rage fading to silence. Behind Monkey Fist, the statues all stopped moving, like a scene in a movie that was suddenly put on pause. Kim stood up fully with a heaving sigh of relief. 'It worked...' she gasped.

Wade, who had remained well out of range of the fighting, stepped cautiously forward. He had a scanner in one hand, and what looked like two other devices in his other hand, and trying fiddle with all of them at once.

She walked up to the statue of Monkey Fist, looking back towards Maze. 'It didn't pan out exactly the way we thought.' she said. 'Defeating the one who released the Yono worked in stopping Monkey Fist, but Maze hasn't turned to stone.'

'So Maze's not walking the Yono's path?' said Wade cautiously.

'Guess not.' said Kim. 'But at least we've got them both now.'

Wade kept checking his instruments, glancing up as Kim waved a hand in front of Monkey Fist's eyes, then looked back again towards Maze. He was about to go over the scanner again when he saw Monkey Fist's face change from an angry looking shout into a malicious smile...

Kim heard Wade's voice suddenly tear out through the air. _'Kim, look out!'_

She gasped, her shield rose again, and Monkey Fist's attack was blocked with a flash of blue light. He smiled and gestured forward. The statues of the townspeople surged back into action, surrounding Kim inside the shield. They pushed and pounded, heedless of the sparks and flashes that burst around them as they fought to override the energy barrier that kept them away from Kim.

'You seem to have done your homework.' said Monkey Fist, raising his voice over the din. 'You're to be commended. But I was _not_ released from the Yono's curse! I was brought back through _different_ means, and as such I am _not_ bound by the same rules that enabled the Han to defeat the Yono. You won't be able to stop me simply by attacking my ally!'

Kim gritted her teeth as she saw the shield's light growing dimmer under the relentless onslaught. Monkey Fisthad stepped back and was watching from a short distance. 'It's only a matter of time, my dear!' he laughed. 'Once your flimsy barrier has been broken, I'll finish what I started at the manor!'

'Not so fast, Monkey Fist!' Wade was shouting from off to the side, and Monkey Fist turned to face him.

'And who do we have here?' he said, sneering. 'If you're standing in for the buffoon, you picked the losing side!'

Kim was still fighting to keep the shield raised, fending off the attacks of the gang of statues. 'Wade - get out of here!' she shouted.

'No worries, Kim!' Wade said, a confident smile on his face. 'You're not the only one who's been getting some surprises ready! I've been working on this since we left Middleton and it's ready - the Short Range Universal Signal Negator!' he held up one of the devices he had been working on.

Monkey Fist raised an eyebrow. 'The _SRUSN_?' he said, a mocking tone in his voice. 'As intelligent as you seem to be, couldn't you have come up with a better acronym?'

Wade was moving closer. 'How about the _D-FEAT-U_?' he said. 'Once I hit this button, every electronic signal within ten yards will be totally jammed - including the one you're using to control these robots!'

Monkey Fist threw back his head and laughed. 'I take it back!' he said, fighting to speak through his mirth. 'You're even dumber than the buffoon was!'

'I mean it!' said Wade, now glaring. 'Stand down or I'll put you down!'

Monkey Fist folded his arms. 'Do your _worst_!' he said.

Wade pressed his thumb down with a loud click. The device in his hand hummed and a soft light seemed to surround an area around him in a radius of several yards, which encompassed Monkey Fist, Kim and the statues of the townsfolk. Kim gasped as the power in her suit seemed to shut down. The shield collapsed and the statues all fell forward on their faces. But Monkey Fist remained standing, staring at Wade. Wade shook the SRUSN, looking at Monkey Fist in confusion.

'Well...' said Monkey Fist shook his head 'That was just sad.'

The statues of the townspeople were getting up. Kim leaped and rolled over them, landing outside the circle and next to Wade. 'Wade, it's not working, turn it off!' Kim shouted. 'You're only blocking the suit!'

Wade fumbled nervously with the SRUSN and the light around him faded. Just in time, the shield re-activated and the oncoming statues were halted again. But the shield was now dim and flickering. 'Hold on!' he shouted to Kim. 'There's one more thing I can try...'

And he held up the other device, a strange box with what looked like a sturdy metal tuning fork jutting out of it. 'If the robots are actually made of stone, this will stop them! The Ultrasonic Emitter automatically scans any nearby solid object! Then it sends out vibrations that resonate with their natural frequency and shatter them!'

'What do you use _that_ for?' Kim shouted, the blows from the statues now pushing through small gaps in the shield.

'I made it to break out of detention one day - long story - tell you later!' And he turned on the device, which began shaking in his hand, the tuning fork became a hazy blur.

_'Wade don't, they're innocent people!'_

'They're just robots disguised as statues and they're trying to flatten us...!' He held out the device.

But the surrounding statues kept attacking. The device whined and squealed in Wade's hand, but it didn't seem to be affecting the townspeople or Monkey Fist in the slightest. Kim saw the stone on the ground beneath them cracking and fragmenting in places, but there was no visible effect on the statues.

Behind the attackers, Monkey Fist was laughing. 'The stuff you young people call _music_ these days...'

_'Wade hold on to me!'_ Kim felt the shield wall breaking. The statues around them were pushing through, their arms raised to seize them. Kim put her arms around Wade and activated her booster soles. With Wade's additional weight, she didn't reach nearly as high as she had before, but it was enough to break out of the surrounding ring.

Wade's face was getting more pale as they landed. He was still working dials on the Ultrasonic Emitter, which buzzed louder and louder until it burst apart in his hand and fell silent. And the statues were still charging at them, their heavy footsteps making the ground tremble.

Kim considered her options. Her plan had been a bust. Defeating Maze hadn't stopped Monkey Fist. Nothing Wade had tried was having any effect. Her suit's power was almost exhausted. She couldn't keep fighting and still protect Wade, who was looking like he was almost in shock. Whatever had been done to the Graniton residents, Kim couldn't stop them alone. She gripped Wade's hand and began running back towards the town, pulling him after her. _'Come on_!' she shouted.

_'After them!'_ Monkey Fist shouted, though he did not pursue Kim himself. He simply stood atop the boulder, watching with satisfaction as Kim and Wade ran back towards the distant town and disappeared behind the line of buildings.

The statues were still only halfway towards the town when he saw a car speeding down the road that led towards the distant highway. He called the statues back and they turned and began shambling slowly towards him. He smirked as the car vanished into the distance, then looked down, hearing a groan. He jumped down and landed next to Maze, who was fighting to his knees. Monkey Fist closed a hand around his wrist and raised him to his feet.

'_Mi'kksiistsikomma_... she attacked me.' he said, shaking his head. 'Where is she? What has happened?'

Monkey Fist was staring out towards the line of dispersing dust on the road where the Sloth had sped away. 'A great victory!' he said, and the elation was visible even on his stony face. 'Hopefully only the first of many! Come - let us return to the lair with our new servants! It won't be long before Kim Possible returns, most likely with those meddlers from Global Justice. Can you mask all of us with your shadows?'

Maze stood for a moment, catching his breath. 'I think so.' he said, and he bent down to pick up his staff. He bent his head and closed his eyes, chanting softly as the statues of the townspeople gathered around them. Darkness stretched out from the surrounding stones, rising and swirling around them until they were obscured from sight. When the shadows lifted, they were gone.

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The plane ride back and the drive in the Sloth to Kim's house was intensely silent. It was some time later. They had called in Global Justice, and Kim had been annoyed when none other than Will Du showed up in a hovercraft with several agents and a healthy dose of his usual skepticism. He seemed almost smug when they searched the area and found nothing. While he agreed that it was unusual for everyone to have disappeared, he casually dismissed Kim's explanation of moving statues, Monkey Fist and the like, despite Wade's support.

They agreed to continue the search, but Will condescendingly thanked Kim for her help and told her to 'leave things to the professionals', then arranged for another cargo plane to give them a ride back to the states. Neither Kim nor Wade said anything until they were back in her house. Kim had put on a spare set of clothes during the plane flight, covering the drained battle suit.

They sat down at the kitchen table. Mr. Dr. Possible was in the breakfast nook reading a paper and drinking a cup of coffee. 'So, how'd the mission go, Kimmy Cu...' he paused, looking at their haggard and grim faces. Several seconds passed in silence. Looking suddenly uncomfortable, he took a firm grip on the paper and the cup, then quickly stood up. 'Whoa, I think the phone's ringing in my den! Pardon me while I... contact mission control!' Then he practically darted out of the kitchen.

Still, neither of them spoke. At last Kim raised her voice. 'Wade - what _happened_ back there?'

Wade looked pale and confused. 'The jammer didn't work...' he said, then he kept saying it over and over again as if he refused to believe it. 'But... there's no signal on Earth strong enough to counter this jammer at close range. It should have worked. There's no scientific explanation for it...'

Kim snapped her fingers next to Wade's ear. 'Forget science for a minute!' she said. 'Wade, they _weren't_ robots, they were animated statues! We went looking for the residents of Graniton and we found them! Monkey Fist used the Yono's power to turn them to stone!'

'But that's not possible!' he said. 'Petrification is a process that takes hundreds, thousands of years...'

'I saw Slate.' Kim said. 'He was _one_ of the statues, I recognized him from the photo. But he was _moving_ - that's something I haven't seen from the Yono's victims before. How did they do it?'

Wade dithered for a second, looking at his scanner, the only piece of equipment he had that hadn't been smashed. 'I... I don't know.' he said at last. 'According to the scanner, there were no circuits, no components, no servos... nothing but solid rock! But that's impossible... solid rock isn't _flexible_ - it crumbles or cracks, it doesn't _move_ like what I saw back there... And the sonic emitter? The vibrations were specifically keyed to resonate with stone. _It should have worked!_'

Kim was getting worried. Wade was always professional, smart as a whip and calculated. But now he was simply sitting and looking at his crumpled equipment. 'Don't wig out on me now, Wade!' Kim said, 'Go over what you saw! You're a scientist - what does the evidence tell you?'

'Kim...' he said, and there was a look of helplessness on his face that she had never seen before. '...I got nothin!'

Kim shook her head. 'First off...' she said, putting both hands on his shoulders, '...Ron would say that was _his_ line. And second, he'd say its loser talk!'

Wade was shaking his head. 'Well, it's kind of hard to come up with winner talk when everything you know has just been turned on its head!'

'Then maybe it's time you rethought your approach.'

Both Kim and Wade's heads snapped up to look towards the sliding glass door that led into the kitchen. Kim's hands balled into fists and she stood up, going into a ready stance while Wade's eyes flew wide. The door had been opened without them hearing or noticing while they talked. Standing in the doorway, the daylight lining him with a pale halo, was a teenage boy with a head of spiked auburn hair. His face was scowling and grave. Kim stared furiously into the hazel eyes of Grimm Probable.

'Hey Kim.' Grimm said, and his expression did not change. 'Did you get my letter?'

Coming Soon:

Chapter 11

_Blind eyes and a long arm._

_Author: The time has come at last - Kim Possible and Grimm Probable face off again in the next chapter! In terms of the main plot, the details of the encounter itself are a bit flexible. So a question to the fans/readers of the story: What would you like to see happen? How do you think the next Kim/Grimm encounter will shake out? There are several delicious possibilities, among them... 1) Kim beats the tar out of Grimm. 2) Grimm defeats Kim. 3) They team up without incident. 4) Grimm head-games or otherwise browbeats Kim into compliance. 5) Kim has Grimm arrested. Or... you can make your own suggestion. In addition to guessing the next riddle (come on, this one's easy), you can tell me how you imagine this encounter will go and even suggest a line or two. It may get in..._


	12. Ch 11: Law & Justice

A Friend In Darkness

All Things Probable 3

A Kim Possible Fanfiction

by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and its affiliates, etc. etc.

Chapter 11  
Justice and Law

_Or: Complications with Leigh Gality_

Kim stood with her fists clenched, her knuckles white, staring at Grimm, who stared back at her. Both of their eyes were gleaming and cold, though Kim's face was reddening with anger. Her eyes were so narrowed, Wade thought for a moment that she had closed them. He felt tension filling the whole room like a blade that had just been unsheathed at a peace conference. After several more seconds, he was practically squirming in his seat. 'Uh - should I step out?' he said, a flutter of panic in his voice.

Kim growled. 'You've got some nerve showing your face here.'

Rufus leaped out of Kim's hip pouch and stood on the table, going into an attack pose and staring at Rueful, who was poking his head out of Grimm's backpack. 'Hiyaaa!' he squeaked. And Rueful reared up onto Grimm's shoulder, his eyes glittering as he looked down at the naked mole rat. A rolling, high pitched growl sounded in his throat.

'The last time we met, you said you'd rather have Wade's help than mine.' Grimm said. 'Still feel that way? I know you've been _stone_walled at every turn, and I distinctly heard 'I got nothing' before I came in.'

'_Get out_!' Kim shouted, moving towards him. Wade flinched, scooting as far back into the breakfast nook as he could manage. He was sure that Kim was going to throw a punch, but she stopped about a foot away from him, her fists raised.

Grimm simply leaned against the door frame, a look of non-concern on his face. 'Leave?' he said. 'After everything I went through to come here and _help_ you?'

'I don't want your help!' Kim snarled. 'I want you in cell block D!'

'You might change your mind once you shut up and listen.' said Grimm. 'You've spent days now trying to hunt down Maze and Monkey Fist, and every moment in between angsting over what they did to Ron. I told you before - they also did it to Rhonda. That means we're both working towards the same end whether or not either of us like it. So why not pool our resources?'

'We've got our own leads.' said Kim, knowing it wasn't really true. 'And once we find Monkey Fist, we'll get Ron back _without_ your so-called help!'

Grimm shook his head, looking annoyed. 'You think it's that easy?' he said. 'After that cute speech you gave Wade about opening his mind beyond the realm of science? This isn't going to be like one of your loser missions where you drag the culprit off to jail and the story ends. Even if by some miracle you actually manage to find Monkey Fist's lair, Ron's not gonna be trussed up inside waiting for you to usher in the happy ending.'

Kim's rage broke. She lashed out with a right cross, but Grimm neatly side-stepped, entering the kitchen and taking the lid off the cookie jar, helping himself to one of the cookies inside. As he took a bite, she followed up with a roundhouse kick, but he rolled beneath her strike, standing up and in front of the breakfast nook while Rueful leaped from his back and landed on the counter, slithering behind the cookie jar.

Kim was moving towards him again, her other hand drawing back for a punch. 'Careful.' Grimm said, his voice muffled as he finished the cookie. 'If you miss, you hit Wade.'

Kim paused with her fist in mid-flight. Her teeth gritted. 'Then let's take it outside.' she hissed.

Grimm's smile returned. 'You've got a lot of anger issues.' he said. 'You're gonna have to work those out before you'll be properly focused on finding your BF.'

'_Then let's take it outside!'_ Kim said again, pointing at the door, her finger shaking with anger.

'Eventually.' Grimm said. 'But there's a few things to get clear before that happens. First off - do you even _want_ to find Ron?'

Kim's eyes blazed. 'What... kind of stupid question is that?' she said, her voice shrill and high.

'I'm just asking.' said Grimm. 'Because it seems like you're more interested in getting even with me than you are in getting Ron back. What exactly are your priorities?' Kim sputtered angrily for a moment and Grimm pressed on. 'If finding Ron is your number one, then you're wasting time every second you spend trying to pick a fight with the only guy who's standing ready with both answers and assistance.'

'Answers?' Kim said, and Wade was surprised to hear her voice so sneering and vicious. 'What kind of answers am I supposed to accept from a liar and a crook?'

'How about this?' said Grimm quickly. '_I know where Ron is.'_ And for the first time, Kim fell silent. Several seconds passed. When no one spoke, Grimm continued. 'For some reason, I had an inkling that you wouldn't be happy to see me.' he said, his smirk returning. 'So I'm _giving_ you information now that I'd normally charge for - as a gesture of good faith.' He held up his communicator, and Kim heard her own voice chanting words that she didn't understand.

_Sipimottakiksi, Sipimottakiksi,_

_Nikaahtomaana nitaaksiistapokska'siimiiwa..._

At the table, Wade was fumbling and taking out his scanner, which he activated just as Grimm turned off his communicator. He looked down at Wade with a wry smile. 'So? What is it?' said Kim, her face glaring and still defiant. 'Smash Mouth's newest single?'

Grimm scowled as he answered. 'It's the incantation that Maze had you speak when he possessed you in the UNIT labs.' he said. 'It's Blackfoot - not that it matters. The basic translation - it's a call to the shadows of the night to banish enemies to the spirit realm.'

'_Spirit_ realm?' Kim said, her voice dripping with disbelief.

Grimm frowned. 'Spirit realm, ethereal plane, alternate dimension, phantom zone, whatever you want to call it. Maze used his shadow magic to banish Rhonda and Ron to another plane of existence - they're stuck between realities. That's why you haven't been able to track him and why that chip you bugged him with isn't transmitting any signal. They could be right here in this room with us, but for all intents and purposes, they may as well be on the other side of the galaxy.'

'How did you find this out?' Kim said.

'I've got my sources.' he answered cagily.

'And I'm supposed to just accept it without question?' Kim said with a laugh. 'For all I know you're in cahoots with Monkey Fist! You think I'm going to trust you?'

'Why should you?' said Grimm. 'I wouldn't. But as the saying goes - how can I prove that I'm trustworthy - unless you trust me? Still, if it'll get you over your attitude, then I'm willing to swap any information we've got until you're satisfied. And you can verify it any way you can think of.'

'You're _serious_.' Kim said. 'You want us to... join forces?'

'Call it a temporary cease-fire.' Grimm said. 'They took Ron from you. They took Rhonda from me. We work together to get them back - once that's done, we go our separate ways and pretend that none of it ever happened.'

'Kim?' Wade's voice sounded from behind her. She started, having nearly forgotten anyone else was there. 'In... the absence of any other plausible theory, maybe we should... compare notes.'

Grimm spread out his hands and looked at the ceiling. 'At least _someone_ in your group has some common sense.' he said quietly.

Kim stared. 'If we do this,' she said, her voice low, 'And I'm _not_ saying we are - but if we do this, there are going to have to be some ground rules.'

Grimm's face split into a cunning grin. 'Rules?' he said. 'Sweet - let's hear them. I'm all about law and order.'

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_Ron sighed for what he thought was the millionth time. He had never been so bored, not even in Barkin's poetry classes. At least in school there was lunch to look forward to. Here, there was nothing but the expanse of endless shadows. The only variety was the darker shapes that swirled and billowed in a never-ending kaleidoscope in varying shades of gray._

_Except for Rhonda, there was nothing else for Ron to look at. They had both tried various experiments to discover how Ron had 'seen' Kim, but to no avail. They had spent time unreckoned staring into the abyss, hoping to catch another glimpse of... anything. But eventually, the ever-shifting patterns of darkness took on a hypnotic quality that Ron had to close his eyes to block out._

_And they had both lapsed into a silence which seemed to stretch out as endlessly as the void surrounding them. With nothing to watch, or do, or say unless one of them had a brainstorm, they wound up doing nothing at all._

_But every so often, Ron's attention was drawn to Rhonda. While he felt nothing but boredom, Rhonda seemed to be in some kind of discomfort. She whimpered occasionally, flinching and wincing and holding herself as if she were in pain. At last he ventured to speak. 'Are you OK?' he said._

_She started and seemed to compose herself. 'Fine.' she said quickly. 'I'm just... trying to figure a way out.'_

_'Okay...' Ron said slowly, noting that Rhonda was biting her lip even as she spoke._

_She seemed lost in thought for a moment. 'Have you seen... her again?' she asked. _

_'No.' said Ron, sounding disappointed. His brief visual impression of Kim had not returned, and it had been so brief he was beginning to doubt whether he'd seen it at all._

_There was more silence, and then Rhonda piped up as if she were somehow afraid of things going quiet again. 'I was wondering...' she said hesitantly. 'Since we're both stuck here, are we able to... touch each other?'_

_'I don't know.' said Ron. 'We could try...'_

_They both paused, and then held out their hands slowly, as if afraid of what might happen. Their fingertips pressed together and tented between them. Both let out a sigh of relief._

_'So we're still solid!' he said happily. 'I guess that proves we're not really spirits ourselves. That's something.' Rhonda nodded, looking at her fingers. 'Just out of curiosity, why'd you ask?' he said._

_'Well...' said Rhonda, and she looked suddenly sheepish, '...I was just thinking. If it turns out we're stuck here forever, then would we have to... hook up?' There was a pause as they looked at each other. Then Ron's eyes went wide._

_'Ewwww!' he said, shuddering and waving his hands. 'I mean... Ewwww!'_

_'I didn't mean I wanted it to happen!' said Rhonda, looking embarrassed. 'It was just a thought!'_

_'Well - we're gonna find a way out, so... think about something else!' Ron said. 'I mean... Ewww!'_

_'All right all right!' Rhonda said, turning away. 'Forget I mentioned it!' And after a pregnant pause, she muttered, 'Not that I'd be caught dead with a doofus-boy like you...'_

_'What was that?' said Ron._

_'Nothing. Nothing.' said Rhonda. Then under her breath, she said quietly, 'A doofus boy says what?'_

_'What?' said Ron. And Rhonda chuckled before silence fell around them again._

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Kim went into the living room of her house, followed by a very nervous looking Wade. They had gone to Graniton on Friday night, and it was well into the weekend. Kim was slightly grateful, because she figured it would take a _long_ time to explain things to her parents and it would be that much harder if she had school and practice hanging over her head.

Behind her and Wade, Grimm remained lurking in the entryway leading to the kitchen with Rueful slithering around his ankles. Her father was in the entertainment room sitting on the couch reading his paper, his empty cup of coffee sitting on the coffee table. Anne was standing behind the couch working on her PDA and Jim and Tim were channel surfing on the big screen TV. Mr. Dr. Possible glanced up from his paper for a moment and smiled. 'I heard a lot of racket from the kitchen.' he said off-handedly. 'I hope you weren't trying to _cook_ something?'

'Oh, something's cooking all right.' Kim grumbled.

Mrs. Dr. Possible, ever sharp-eyed, saw Grimm at once. 'Kim... who's your guest?' she said. 'He's wearing your old outfit - is he helping you with your work?'

Grimm nodded to Mrs. Dr. Possible. 'We've met.' he said. 'I was the chauffeur driver who picked up your daughter a few months back - just before you all turned evil.'

Mr. Dr. Possible looked keenly at him. 'Kimmy-cub, isn't this the guy you told us was one of your _enemies_?'

Kim sighed. 'Yes.' she said, and her father frowned.

'Well, what is he doing in _my_ living room?'

'Mom, Dad, this is... Grimm Probable.' she said, feeling suddenly awkward at the weirdness of introducing a _villain_ to the family. 'He says he's here to help me find Ron.'

Mr. Dr. Possible looked back and forth between them. 'And... you're _ok_ with this?'

'That depends on what he tells me in the next few minutes.' she said, growling.

Mr. Dr. Possible relaxed. He had, after all, entertained several of Kim's foes under bizarre circumstances in the past, and he seemed to take it in stride. 'Jim, Tim,' he said, looking over at the twins. 'Scoot over and make room for your sister's evil mercenary opposite!'

'I'm insulted.' said Grimm quietly as he crossed the room and sat down on the couch. '_One of your enemies_? That's like saying a nuke is _one of the weapons_ in an arsenal. After all the fun times we've had together, I'm not even an _arch_ enemy yet?'

'I go by seniority.' Kim said, staring at him across the coffee table.

Grimm smirked. 'Maybe when this is all over I'll step things up change your mind.'

Jim and Tim were staring at Grimm. 'Grimm Probable?' said Jim.

'_The_ Grimm Probable?' said Tim.

Grimm looked sidelong at the twins. 'What's she been telling you?' he said darkly.

'Not much.' said Tim.

'But we looked over your profile in her Kimmunicator.' said Jim.

'Then we mentioned you once at dinner, and she got so torked off she blew hot chocolate out of her nose!' said Jim. Grimm looked at Kim, smirking and raising his eyebrow.

'I did _not_!' said Kim, shaking her finger back and forth between the two boys.

'Did _too_!' said both Jim and Tim together.

'Out, tweebs!' Kim shouted.

Both Jim and Tim turned to Mr. Dr. Possible. 'Dad!' they both said appealingly. But Mr. Dr. Possible was already shaking his head and gesturing to the stairs. They both groaned and stumped off, though their shadows stopped just past the corner at the top of the stairs. Only when Mrs. Dr. Possible glared towards their feathered silhouettes did they flick off to the side and disappear.

Kim sighed, looking at her parents. 'Mom, Dad, I _may_ be... working with him temporarily, which means he _may_ be here now and again. Are you cool with that?'

'Is he show folk?' said Mr. Dr. Possible, and Mrs. Dr. Possible sighed softly.

Kim blanked for a moment. She had no idea if he was show folk or not, and glanced towards him. Grimm shook his head very slightly. 'No.' she said.

Mr. Dr. Possible shrugged. 'Well then, as long as he can follow our curfew, have at it.' he said.

Mrs. Dr. Possible tugged at her husband's shoulder. 'Come on honey, let's go to the kitchen.'

Mr. Dr. Possible looked a little miffed as he picked up his coffee cup. 'They were just _in _the kitchen...' but he surrendered grudgingly as his wife glared at him and led him out.

Now there was no one in the living room except for Wade, Kim and Grimm. It suddenly seemed as if the room was very large and silent. 'Well now that I've met the folks,' said Grimm sardonically, 'Can I come calling every night if I bring posies?'

'Ground rules.' said Kim, ignoring him. 'You said yourself this is temporary. So once we get Ron back, I throw you in jail.'

Grimm sniffed. 'Given your past track record, feel free to try.'

'Second - _no evil_.' Kim said, glaring.

'No promises.' Grimm answered.

'And..._ no head gaming_.' Kim said.

Grimm shook his head. 'Get real.' he said. 'I'm not asking you to give up cheerleading.'

'That's the deal.' Kim said firmly. 'If you can't hack it, we skip straight to the you-go-to-jail part.'

Grimm's face set into a hard expression. 'I'm _not_ operating under a handicap.' he said. 'If I help, I help without restraint. Otherwise, I leave you with Mr. 'I got nothing' and _he_ can help you get your Ronny-boy out of limbo.'

'I'm still not buying this spirit world stuff.' said Kim.

'Buy it. It's the truth.' said Grimm flatly.

Wade piped up again. 'Look, before _either_ side starts throwing down ultimatums, we should determine if the intel is good enough to even _merit_ a team up.'

'Fine.' said Kim and Grimm at the same time, their eyes locked and gleaming. Grimm tapped a button on the side of his communicator and a flash chip slid out. He pushed it across the coffee table towards Wade with his finger.

'Here's all the info I've gathered on where Rhonda and Ron are and what happened to them.' Grimm said, eyeing Wade as if they were both spies at a cloak and dagger meeting. 'The only stuff missing is info I didn't think was... necessary.'

Kim blurted out. 'You mean any info that might lead us to _your_ hideout.' she said angrily.

Grimm stared at her. 'Naturally.' he answered. 'I said I'd give you our intel on Maze and Monkey Fist. I didn't say I'd tell you anything about _me._' Wade had taken the chip and was opening the slot to his scanner. 'But if it's a matter of trust,' said Grimm quickly, turning back to Wade, 'Then you might want to consider _waiting_ on putting that chip in your equipment until you've verified that it's not loaded with spike programs, spyware or viruses.'

At once, Wade's hand stopped as if he had suddenly realized he was arming a bomb. 'But... you said you were here to _help_ us.' he said. 'Why would you give us files with viruses?'

'I'm not.' said Grimm, leaning back in the sofa and looking smug. 'But I'd be disappointed if you let your guard down so easily. Scan it properly - verify it's safe. _Then_ look it over. You can't be too careful - there's people out there who can't be trusted.'

Kim sighed and shook her head in exasperation. 'I said _no head gaming_.' she winced.

Grimm's smirk looked like it was in danger of freezing in place. 'And I recall saying I _didn't_ agree to that.' he answered.

Kim was growling again and Wade hurriedly stood up. 'I'll verify the data at home.' he said. 'Once I do that, we can know whether there's any point in joining forces.'

'Yes, and _please_ hurry.' said Grimm, a flicker of impatience in his voice. 'I'm not sure how much longer I can put up with Little Miss Sunshine here.'

Wade was looking nervous as he moved to the door. 'Kim are you gonna be... OK until I get back?'

'Don't worry about _me_.' said Kim, her gaze fixed on Grimm like twin beams of ice.

Wade was exiting when Grimm spoke again. 'By the way - Jade will be stopping by when you go over the data. Just so you know.' Wade paused, then closed the door behind him, leaving Kim and Grimm alone in the living room.

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Maze stood in the lair with a satisfied smile on his face, watching as the petrified residents of Graniton labored. The statues were in the area furthest back in the lair, hammering against the wall with their fists, digging and breaking stone with their bare hands. They worked ceaselessly, increasing the size of the lair by hollowing out stone and carrying it outside in a never-ending cycle.

Monkey Fist stood next to him. 'I trust things are proceeding to your satisfaction?' he said dryly.

Maze glanced at him and nodded. 'I had my doubts.' he said. 'But the devices seem to have worked exactly as you described.'

'Of course.' Monkey Fist answered, and the smugness in his voice was plain to hear. 'I'm sure you are anxious to use them again, but I feel it best that we wait until the next phase of the plan is underway - not to mention this... _side project_ that you have suggested.' he looked over to where the statues continued to dig and hew rock from the cavern. 'You will want to have them add support structure.' he said, glancing to the sizeable depression that had already been dug into back of the lair. 'The last thing we need is to have the lair collapse on us.'

Maze nodded again, and there was silence for several minutes except for the sounds of digging and the thud of heavy boulders being moved. At last he spoke again. 'As to the next phase of the plan,' he said, 'Why can we not proceed with the tools that we already have?'

'It is a question of _scale_.' said Monkey Fist. 'Our machine will affect small areas, but if we cannot cover a large enough section, we will not create enough chaos to ensure that our enemies won't be able to rally resistance. They don't know the full power of our new weapon yet, nor it's weaknesses. We must keep it that way until we are ready to proceed again. If all goes as I have foreseen, then the final operation will be massive and swift - the entire world will be powerless to stop us!'

Maze frowned. 'Then what was the purpose of assembling _this_ device if it is too small?' he said.

Monkey Fist looked at him keenly. 'The purpose?' he said. 'To make sure that it works of course. We were always going to need a larger version. But as I said - I have reached the limit of my technical skill. Our machine works - but it is not strong enough. We need it to be bigger - more powerful. Otherwise, we are reduced to acting in small increments as we did in Graniton.'

'If we are untraceable, as you say, then what difference does it make?' said Maze. 'We can strike at will and sow fear among our foes if they cannot find us.'

'Triangulation.' said Monkey Fist. 'If we do things as you described, then eventually they will track us down simply be examining the patterns of our movements. Even the machine cannot mask that forever. All they will need is a map on which to mark the places we strike, and then to examine for _any_ unusual energy readings. Eventually they would know. Which is why we should wait until our reach is expanded.'

'Then it might be prudent to target _Mi'kksiistsikomma_ right now.' said Maze.

'She has already contacted Global Justice.' said Monkey Fist, shaking his head. 'I think they doubt her story at the moment, but if she disappears, then Global Justice will take the matter more seriously. We're not yet prepared to deal with an organization that far-reaching. The opportunity will arise - but until we have a larger version of the machine, it is more prudent to wait.'

Maze's eyes narrowed. 'And you are _certain_ that this will require assistance from a third party? I am comfortable with current arrangements. Adding another factor into the equation is something I would rather not do unless we have to.'

Monkey Fist made an impatient sniffing motion. 'You are comfortable with our slaves because they cannot disobey you. And you are comfortable with _me_ because without your power, I revert to my immobile state. Which means you'll always have a degree of _control_.'

'Yes.' Maze said. 'Surely that's something you understand.' Monkey Fist nodded grudgingly. 'And that control is something I would rather not divide between too many. If you say we will need someone with scientific expertise to build a larger, more powerful version of the machine, I will trust your judgment. But I would prefer someone who can be controlled. Someone expert, but... easily intimidated.'

Monkey Fist's mouth crinkled into a faint smile. 'As it happens, I think I know just the man.' he said.

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Wade sat down in the familiar chair in front of his computer. The flash card Grimm had given him was lying on a table where nearly a dozen different scanners were sending sweeping beams of light across it, humming, clicking and running through every screening program and protocol that he knew.

After each program completed it's analysis, Wade was satisfied there was nothing harmful contained on it. He took one of his older computers and set up a network of firewalls to block it from sharing files with any of his other systems and hard wired it so it couldn't be linked remotely to his main computers. Then with a sigh of anticipation, he slid the chip into the data port and started looking over the files. As he started reading he heard a beep behind him and an insolent voice hit his ears.

'Hey Wade! Kiss-kiss!'

Wade turned to the screen of his main computer and saw Jade's face staring out at him, a playful smirk on her lips. He grumbled and sniffed. 'Grimm said you'd be stopping by.' said Wade. 'I kind of thought...'

'Physically?' said Jade, sneering. 'You know me, Wadey. I let my _fingers_ do the walking!' She paused, resting her chin on one palm. 'Any chance I could get your mom to bring in another lemon square?'

Wade glared at his screen while Jade stared back with a look on her face that was only seen on a player who held the previous win record in a game. 'Let's get this over with.' he said. 'The less access you've got the better.'

'Don't like wasting time, huh?' said Jade. 'I like that in a guy.' Jade's eyes looked almost sultry. 'You were a lot cuter when I had you hog-tied.' she said.

Wade flushed, but concealed it with effort. 'Look, do you want our info or not?' he said.

Jade sighed. 'Fine, send it along.'

For some time things were quiet as they both scanned and then read, making occasional comments, their voices taking on a distracted and distant sound as they spoke and studied at the same time.

'Interesting...' said Jade. 'So that was why Monkey Fist wanted the scroll leading to the first key shrine. He never said...'

'So all the years when Maze left he was studying shadow-medicine?' Wade said later. 'It creates some kind of barrier and lets him transfer his consciousness to someone else? That would explain why it was Kim's voice doing the incantation. Interesting...'

'The Yono...' said Jade. 'Trashed Grimm's old school lickety-split. But taking down Monkey Fist sent him packing? Too bad it didn't work in Graniton. That must mean they found a loophole of some kind. Interesting...'

'The Great Bear Spirit?' said Wade. 'Well, it's not Mystical Monkey Power, but still... Interesting...'

And then things faded to silence except for both of them muttering the same word back and forth.

'Interesting...'

'Interesting...'

'Interesting...'

'Interesting...'

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Kim had spent several minutes in silence staring across the coffee table at Grimm. He made no sign except to stare back at her occasionally. Every so often, Mrs. Dr. Possible would peer around the corner to look at them, only to return quickly to the kitchen. Rufus perched on Kim's knee and growled softly at Rueful, who slithered onto the couch and curled over Grimm's leg to chitter angrily at Rufus.

Grimm sighed at last. 'Well as fun as this is,' he said with his voice dripping disdain, 'we could save some time by going over a few things before Jade and Wade call back to confirm what I already know.' He looked her over before continuing. 'How did you find Monkey Fist that last time?'

'We didn't _find_ him.' Kim said. 'We were investigating a missing person case in Graniton and he was just _there_.'

'You went straight after Maze when he turned up - why?'

Kim paused before answering. 'I thought taking him down would defeat Monkey Fist. Beating Monkey Fist was what stopped the Yono.'

Grimm nodded slightly. 'I'll have to have Jade look into that. We've never encountered the Yono before - your data on his powers could be useful.'

'My turn.' said Kim scowling. 'What have _you_ been up to?'

Grimm paused and smiled. 'We haven't been up to _anything_.' he said evasively. 'But I've... _heard_ that Monkey Fist and Maze have been collecting various components through some unknown source.'

Kim winced. 'Just spit it out.' she said. 'You've been stealing stuff for them!'

Grimm's eyes widened in stage surprise. 'What a terrible thing to say.' he said. 'I have no idea what you're talking about. But I have sources of my own who have more expertise then your people, and I think we have a good idea of all the devices they've gathered. Once Jade and Wade compare files, we should be able to make a clear guess at what they're building.'

'What do they want?' Kim said. 'And why did they go after Ron and Rhonda?'

'Beats me.' said Grimm. 'Monkey Fist said he wanted world domination, but he's been saying that kind of thing for ages - you know that. But Maze has had it in for Rhonda for some time now, just like Monkey Fist has been after your BF. If my sources had known that Maze was in on it with Monkey Fist, then they'd have... had a lot more trouble gathering their components. Pretty stupid of them really. They could have been getting help for even longer if they hadn't been in such a hurry to settle their grudges.'

Kim felt her eye twitching as anger boiled up inside her. 'You mean...' she said, taking a measured breath, '...that if they hadn't taken Rhonda you'd still be _helping_ them?'

'I didn't say so.' said Grimm. 'Maze though - we banned him a while back for double-crossing us. Those are the rules. When a client plays it straight, we don't interfere. But if they try playing us, _they_ get played.'

'You... two-faced...' Kim sputtered, but Grimm cut across her.

'The fact is, they _did_ betray me.' he said, with a hint of impatience. 'Which means I'm on your side until I get Rhonda back. I'm even working for free on this one. So what are you complaining about?'

'What am I...?' Kim said, shaking her head. 'I'm _complaining_ because you helped them get the equipment they needed to make sure we can't track them down, and who knows where they'll strike next?'

Grimm shrugged. 'It's a pickle, but just the sort of challenge that Jade would love to sink her teeth into. If your techie pays attention, he might learn a thing or two from her.'

'She'll be the one who gets schooled...' Kim muttered, but Grimm seemed to have heard her.

'Doubtful.' he said. 'He's just like you in more ways than you know - fettered and shackled with baggage from the goody-two-shoes school of hard knocks.' He looked cunningly at her. 'I honestly don't know how losers like you get by when you put yourselves willingly under so many restraints. If you had the brains and the guts, you might actually be dangerous.'

'So why come to me at all?' Kim said, feeling stung by his attitude. 'If you're so tough, and if you think I'm such a flake, why come crawling to me for help?'

Grimm looked uncomfortable for one brief instant, but then it passed. 'It's not in my nature to leave things to chance.' he said, and his voice, instead of sounding cocky or sarcastic, instead sounded measured and serious. 'I plan things out before I make my moves, and I make them only when I've determined which ones have the best odds to succeed.'

Kim glared at him. 'And what? You think your best odds are with _me_ now?'

'Something like that.' said Grimm, and he sounded almost resentful. 'The fact is, the technology they have now makes them untraceable electronically. And between Monkey Fist's ninja training and Maze's woodcraft, the odds are slim to nil against tracking them down conventionally.'

He lowered his eyes slightly and seemed for a moment that he was speaking to himself rather than to Kim. 'Given Jade's report on what happened at Monkey Fist's manor, and then your encounter in Graniton, my guess is they're in England. But England is a big island. Maze's shadow-medicine seems to allow him to travel through darkness in some way. It's not teleportation, otherwise they wouldn't have needed anyone to gather equipment for them. I think he can use the shadows to conceal or hasten their movements in some way, but they can still be blocked by walls, locks and other security measures.'

His eyes locked back on Kim. 'Luck and chance.' he said. 'I don't like relying on it. But the fact is, you've crossed paths with Monkey Fist _twice_ now, and I haven't found them once. I don't know what kind of mojo you've got with him, but for this caper - I want in on it.'

Grimm leaned forward and the look in his eyes was suddenly very focused and intense. 'You're _lucky_.' he said. 'Think back to all your missions. How many of them were sitches where you _should_ have been taken down? But you came through them all. It's one of the reasons why getting to you is such a blast. I operate under a different philosophy and I love proving that I'm right. I don't rely on luck to get the job done, I rely on _skill_. In the long run, skill beats luck. It always does. But there are _some_ times when it's better to be lucky than good.'

He leaned back again and folded his arms. 'And that's pretty much it. I don't know when or how that dumb luck of yours will help you to stumble across Monkey Fist or Maze again. But I'm banking that it'll happen. And I want to be there when it does. You had the right idea in targeting Maze first, but for the wrong reasons. When I corner him, I'll do it _right_.'

'How will it make any difference if _you_ take him down?' Kim said.

'It was Maze's shadow-medicine that banished Rhonda and Ron.' he answered. 'And I think he can reverse it with the right persuasion.'

'You _think_?'

'Newton's third law of motion.' Grimm said. 'For every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction. If Maze knew how to banish them, he knows how to bring them back.'

Kim looked darkly at him. 'And how are you going to 'persuade' him?'

Grimm's expression was flat as he answered. 'I'll take care of it.' he said. 'It's nothing you need to worry about.'

Kim shook her head. 'I don't do things that way.' she said. 'No rough stuff.'

Grimm raised an eyebrow. 'You'd really leave Ron stuck in Limbo rather than let me do what's necessary to bring him back? I was only guessing before, but it sounds like you really _don't _care about your BF. And you say _I'm_ the bad guy? You're stone cold, Possible.'

Kim winced at the accusation. 'You _are_ the bad guy!' she said. 'I wasn't the one who handed stolen technology to Monkey Fist! I wasn't the one who sold my BF to them for money! And you sit there making like you _care_ more about your partner in crime than I care about Ron? If you cared about her at all, you'd have never played footsie with every villain who has a bankroll! I should call the police in and have them throw you in jail right now!'

Grimm's frown became more and more pronounced as Kim spoke. 'Fine,' he said, looking irritated. 'This whole 'I'll see you in jail' thing - let's get it dealt with right _now_ so we can focus on finding Rhonda and Ron.' He took out his communicator. 'Jade - she here?' he said.

'Huh?' said Jade, sounding distracted for a moment. Then she seemed to refocus. 'Oh yeah - she's coming up the walkway now.' came Jade's tinny voice. 'You can open the door for her in three... two... one...'

Grimm quickly got up, moved to the front door and opened it. As if she had been expecting it, a woman strode into the living room without hesitation. She was tall, blonde and leggy, wearing a business jacket and blouse with a short gray skirt. She looked like a supermodel dressed as a businesswoman, and was carrying a briefcase in her hand.

'Thank you, Grimm.' she said without looking at him. She adjusted her glasses, looking Kim up and down. 'Is this her?' Grimm nodded, standing beside her.

The woman sat down in the reading chair and laid her briefcase on the coffee table, opening it and taking out several papers. Her voice went crisp and cool. 'Kimberly Ann Possible,' she said. 'My name is Leigh Gality, legal representative of Mr. Grimm Probable.' She held out one of the papers, holding it under Kim's nose. 'I am serving notice to you that if you continue with your acts of slander against my client, we will be pressing charges against you.'

'What?' said Kim, taking the paper. 'You've got to be kidding me.'

'I'm afraid this is no joke, Ms. Possible.' Leigh said, and indeed her voice was utterly devoid of any emotion, especially humor. 'You have been spreading false accusations against my client and unless you can prove them in a court of law, you are hereby ordered to cease and desist.'

Kim turned to Grimm, glaring at him. 'You're siccing a _lawyer_ on me?' she said, crumpling the paper into a wad in her hands. 'That's got to be the lamest...'

'You're the one trying to bring the law into this Kim, not me.' he said. 'You brought it on with this 'I'll sic the police on you' attitude you insist on copping.'

'You don't have to say another word to her.' Leigh said, glancing aside at Grimm before boring her steely gray eyes back into Kim's green ones. 'My client has no obligation to explain himself to you, or anyone else. Though of course, he's quite correct. You, Kim Possible, are the one harassing my client by threatening to have him arrested for crimes that haven't been proven.'

Kim scowled. '_Haven't been proven?'_ Kim said incredulously.

'Indeed not, Ms. Possible.' said Leigh, her face steady and expressionless. 'In fact, I have reason to believe that the accusations you've leveled against my client are nothing more than figments of your overactive teenage imagination.'

Kim sputtered. This was too much. She was used to throwing goons and villains through plate glass windows - not seeing them call in lawyers. 'I know enough about the law to know that all you need is one eyewitness to a crime - and _I'm_ an eyewitness!'

'And we have just as many witnesses to disprove you, Ms. Possible.' said Leigh coldly. 'Any fool can make an accusation, yes. But if, as you say, you want my client imprisoned, you'll have to prove them with facts and evidence. And I assure you, I can't wait to drag you in front of a judge and rip you to shreds.'

Kim glared. 'Go ahead and _try_ it!' she hissed. 'I'll pit my word against yours any day! Haven't you heard? I'm a world-famous crime-fighter.'

'Do you really want to do that, Ms. Possible?' said Leigh. 'Let me give you a taste of what you can expect. A world famous crime fighter? Would you please show me your license which acknowledges you as a member of any law enforcement agency, and gives you power to act in behalf of said agency in any official capacity?'

Kim flushed. Of course she didn't have any licenses. She'd never needed any. No one had ever objected to her coming in to save the day.

'Are there any formal law enforcement agencies who will claim you as their representative and present documentation to that effect?' Leigh continued, examining her notes. 'I have evidence here that you run a website in which you offer your... _services_... free and without charge. Which means that any enforcement agency can only consider you a 'crime fighter' as an honorary title. 'You have no credentials as a policeman, Ms. Possible. You're not even a mercenary or a bounty hunter. You're just a kid _pretending_ to be one.'

Kim clenched her fists. 'Global Justice will vouch for me.' she said, her voice dark and quiet.

'I've had an eye on Global Justice for a while too.' said Leigh, a faint smirk on her red lips. 'What credibility will _they_ have when I present evidence that they've been using an _underage_ girl to perform tasks that are clearly in violation of child labor laws? Rent-a-lawyers across the country are collecting millions from businesses for hot coffee and wet floors. How much will they pay to keep us quiet about how they send you into war zones? In any event, the only thing Global Justice can do is admit their own duplicity in using you. They have nothing on my client.'

'He _broke _into a military base!' Kim said, her temper flaring. 'He blew apart the roof and...'

'If you're referring to the break-in at Stafford Base,' said Leigh, interrupting her again, 'I have here an official report which states that the weapons theft was performed by one Drew Lipski, aka Dr. Drakken. My client was not involved.'

'Drakken stole the weapons later!' Kim said. 'He broke in first!'

'Besides your co-conspirator, Mr. Stoppable, can anyone in Stafford Base verify that my client was ever there?' Leigh said smoothly.

Kim paused. The fact was, Grimm had gassed everyone in the base and Jade had shut down the cameras. There hadn't been anyone else there to witness their battle.

Leigh took the advantage of Kim's pause to press on. 'The simple fact is, Ms. Possible, there isn't anyone besides yourself who is making these accusations against my client. You have no other witnesses. All you have is Mr. Stoppable, who is so love-struck with you, he'd obviously say or do anything you asked, whether it was true or not.'

'He was arrested at Drakken's lair!' Kim said furiously.

'On false charges that I was already moving to have dismissed.' said Leigh. 'The two officers who were there that night have already told me that they did not see Drakken in that building. All they saw were you and Mr. Stoppable. My client had been hired through his website simply as temporary security for the facility, which _you_ broke into without authorization.'

'My only regret is that I wasn't able to stop her from performing her acts of sabotage.' said Grimm.

'He overpowered the police and stole their van!' Kim said angrily.

'As there was no crime committed that night, my client was well within his rights to walk away.' said Leigh. 'As to the van, it was returned to the police parking lot the following morning. If you had bothered checking, you would have found out that the officers in question were compensated for the time they spent walking back into the city and the matter was settled out of court.'

Kim shook her finger at Grimm. 'He _kidnapped_ Ron!' she said. 'He used an Attitudinator on him and took away his good!'

'And where is this Attitudinator which you _claim_ my client used?' Leigh said, a snide edge to her voice.

Kim fumed. She had fed it into a metal shredder herself. 'He turned the whole world into super-villains and...'

'If you are referring to the incident with the device called the "Mega Synaptic Transducer", I was under the impression that this machine was built and used by a super-villain called "Zorpox the Conqueror", who bears a striking resemblance to your boyfriend. We have video footage of his ultimatum, in which he demanded access to the world's supply of Nacos. No mention is made in any police reports that my client was involved in any way.'

'Oh _please..._' said Kim, holding her head in disgust.

'Ms. Possible, can you provide any witnesses besides yourself and your boyfriend, who I assure you would be treated as a hostile witness, that Mr. Probable was involved in any of these incidents you have mentioned?'

Kim thought hard. 'Master Sensei and the Yamanouchi school...' she started.

'Call them if you dare, Kim.' said Grimm. 'Go ahead and try to get them to appear in a court of law. They won't come. In fact, they'll be insulted if you even mention their 'secret' school to anyone. Though I'd be delighted if they did show up. A pack of ninja and their trainer - a school unrecognized and by any accredited agency.'

'I'd relish the opportunity.' said Leigh, thumbing through more of her notes. 'If the best witnesses you can come up with are a gang of assassins, then I can't wait to see them in court. Let them try to explain themselves to a judge and jury. "Kim Possible uses international cut-throats to intimidate her enemies" - your friend Dibble will have a field day.'

Kim's eyes narrowed. 'Well,' said Leigh. 'If you're finished with your false accusations, then all that remains is for you to unfold the document you so rashly crumpled. I advise you to take better care of it. It's an injunction forbidding you from making any more false rumors, claims or charges against my client. If you fail to comply, it'll be juvenile detention for you, until you're old enough to be tried as an adult. Rest assured, I'll have representatives keeping a close eye on you. And if you commit any more acts of slander against my client, by yourself or through others, we'll _know_.'

'You... little...!' Kim said, but was unable to articulate anything further.

'Sorry kid.' said Leigh coldly. 'This is what you get when they try to tangle with the grown-ups. Grimm hired me because I'm the best. Get a lawyer of your own if you think you can. I've never lost a case, and whoever you get, I'll grind them into hamburger. Not that you could afford anyone close to my level, Ms. Possible. You'll be baby-sitting until you're 60 before you could pay the fees.' She snapped her briefcase shut, then stood up and turned to Grimm. 'If she even _looks_ at you the wrong way, beep me.' she said, 'I'll have the dogs on her in five minutes.'

'Thanks, Leigh. You rock out loud.' The merest trace of a blush crossed her face, then Leigh picked up her briefcase and strode out of the house as unceremoniously as she had come in, closing the door behind her.

Kim simply stood up, glaring at the rumpled papers in her hand. The words typed on them were incomprehensible gibberish through her anger, but for the moment they blocked her from taking action, at least until she could have Wade verify things. She looked back up at Grimm, and her anger only increased. 'You really are a snake, Grimm.'

Grimm raised an eyebrow, but his expression, instead of being smug, looked totally cold. 'Thanks for the insult.' he said. 'Feel better now?'

'Obviously not.' said Kim, snarling.

'Then it's time we moved on to part two of this little catharsis-fest.' He walked back towards the entrance to the kitchen. 'Come on.' he said, nodding towards her. 'Let's do it.'

'What?' Kim said, staring at him in surprise.

'The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can get your energy focused on where it _should _be.' Grimm said. Kim stared at him, not sure what he was talking about. He looked at her grimly. 'What are you waiting for? Let's take it outside.' Then he turned and walked out of the living room.

Grimm strode through the kitchen, ignoring Mr. and Mrs. Dr. Possible, then slid open the door and went into Kim's backyard, looking around. 'Nice.' he said, glancing to a bare patch on the lawn. 'So here's where you do all your parachute landings. Looks like you've beat a fair path from there to the garage. Must be where you fold up the chute when you're done.'

Kim followed him out the sliding door and into the yard. Her parents looked out after her nervously, while Jim and Tim scampered in out of nowhere and flattened their noses against the kitchen window glass. 'Oh _dear_...' said Ms. Dr. Possible, taking her husband's hand as Kim slid the door closed behind her. 'I've got a bad feeling about this.'

Kim went out onto the lawn. Grimm was still looking around, taking things in. 'Well,' he said, turning to face her. 'I guess this is as good a place as any.'

Kim looked at him in confusion. 'Good enough for _what_?' she said.

Grimm put up his hands, going into a low crouch. 'Typical _girl_. You never say what you really want. And when someone does try to give you what you _do_ say you want, you have the nerve to act confused.'

'Talk _sense_.' Kim said, grinding her teeth.

'Fine.' Grimm answered. 'When I first showed up, you tried to deck me. When Wade almost got in the way you said you wanted to take it outside. Well, here we are - outside. Let's do it.'

'Typical _guy_.' said Kim. 'Always saying girls confuse you. But who's the one giving mixed signals? You came here saying you wanted to team up. Then you hide behind a lawyer to make sure I don't call the cops on you. Now you're saying you want to fight?'

'You're so convinced I'm the bad guy here.' he said. 'I'm just giving you what you want. And I'm not gonna stop until you've had enough.'

'Had enough of _what_?' Kim said. 'Enough of a beating? You haven't got the guts to do anything in front of witnesses.'

'You think so?' he smirked, looking suddenly malicious. 'Then let me step out of character and make the first cut. Kim - _your boyfriend is an idiot_.' Kim flinched, her face reddening, but Grimm was still talking. 'He's a clumsy, know-nothing lack wit who just gets in your way. You should be _thanking_ me that he's gone.'

'That's it - get out of my house!' Kim shouted. 'I don't care what information you've got, take it someplace else!'

'Oh, I'm not going anywhere now.' he said. 'Maybe I've changed _my_ mind too - maybe I want to take _you_ out and run the show myself. Then maybe something will actually get _accomplished_.'

Kim clenched her hands and bit her lip. It had happened in all their previous battles, and she was seeing through the trick. 'You're trying to get me to throw the first punch.' she said. 'So _not_ gonna happen!'

The strike came so quickly that Kim barely blocked it. Grimm lashed out with a pair of high kicks and a roundhouse punch. Kim weaved out of the way, surprised at his sudden ferocity. 'You think you know my tricks so well?' he said. 'I know _yours_ too, _Mi'kksiistsikomma_. They didn't name me _Otaatoyiwa_ for no reason.'

'_Otaatoyiwa_?' said Kim.

'Yeah.' said Grimm, and he continued striking out at her with textbook routines of Tai Shing Pek Kwar. 'It's Blackfoot - it means '_kicks Kim Possible's sorry butt_.'

'That sounds like it should have more syllables.' said Kim, bracing herself and deflecting his punches.

'How about I make you say _ouch_? That's only got one.'

'Just _try_ it!' said Kim.

Grimm smiled wickedly. 'In fact since we've all got Blackfoot names here, maybe I should give one to Ron so he's not left out. How about... _Ipi'sskinao'siwa_ - it means _screams a lot_.'

'Shut up about Ron!' Kim hissed, deflecting another punch and lashing out with one of her own.

'Why?' Grimm said, glowering. 'I'm probably not saying anything that you haven't been thinking yourself!' Then with a blindingly fast move, he pivoted and launched into a roundhouse kick which Kim blocked. He followed up with punches from both hands. As he continued to strike, Kim thought resentfully that it really _was_ easier to block attacks when your opponent made the first move. She was able to launch counters and set herself up to attack more easily after Grimm put his effort into his punches.

They moved through the yard in a dangerous waltz of advance and withdrawal while Kim's family watched through the glass in the kitchen windows and doors. Kim gradually moved from defense to offense, finding herself expertly countered at every turn.

'Not smart.' said Grimm. 'We both know in the long haul, I'll outlast you. You fight like a stick of TNT, _Mi'kksiistsikomma_. There's one big blast of energy, but if you can't finish the job in that one burst, you've got nothing left. Me, I'm more like poison. All I have to do is hold you off 'till the venom kicks in, and then I _own_ you!'

Kim's next punch whooshed through empty air as Grimm leaped up and flipped backwards, landing gracefully and balancing on the backyard fence. Kim hesitated only an instant before leaping up after him, but Grimm skittered like a cat, dashing along the thin path of the fence top with balance so flawless it looked as if he had done it a hundred times. Kim mustered all of her cheerleader skills and followed after him with a series of rolling flips.

Jim and Tim watched with their mouths hanging open, then Tim said weakly, 'I could do that, but I don't want to.' Jim snickered only once.

Grimm leaped out and seized one of the lower branches of the tallest tree in the backyard, tucking and rolling until he had flipped up and was crouched on the heavy limb. Kim landed a couple of feet away from him, leaves rustling around her.

'Stop _running_!' she snarled. 'Fight me fair and square!'

'That's the thing, isn't it?' said Grimm, blocking the punches and kicks that Kim sent at him. 'Maybe in a _fair_ fight you'd stand a chance, but fighting unfair is what's kept me two steps ahead of you ever since we met. You've never been anything more than a chihuahua yapping at my heels, and that's all you ever will be!'

'_Shut up_!' Kim yelled. She had trouble keeping her balance on the narrow, winding beam of the tree branch, but Grimm seemed right at home. As she turned her dual punches into a series of rapid spinning kicks, she drove Grimm slowly back until the branch looked as if it were too narrow to support his weight. She pressed forward, keeping up the pressure.

She caught Grimm attempting a forward roll and managed to knock his feet out from under him, certain that he would fall. But his hands planted firmly on the tree branch and he turned his handstand into a half-spin, lashing out with his legs in a whirlwind kick. Kim blocked the first one, but the second one caught her in the side of her ribs as he completed his spin and rolled up to a crouch.

Kim landed with a thud onto the padded surface of the grassy lawn beneath the tree, but Grimm was on her an instant later, driving his fist into her gut and forcing the air out of her in a rasping wheeze. The punch wasn't that hard, but it was enough to make her gasp for breath, and he took the time to bend his head down and growl into her ear.

'Not enough for you? How about this? Everything you thought is true - I _did_ cook this whole thing up with Monkey Fist and Maze. I did it all to get to you - to make you suffer. How about _that_?'

'You...!' Kim snarled, taking in a racking breath and punching with all her strength. She surged to her feet and continued her attacks, but Grimm blocked and countered every strike. She felt a furious desperation to land just one blow, to hurt him as much as he'd hurt her.

'Had enough yet?' Grimm sneered.

Kim screamed in frustrated rage as he continued to block her punches and kicks. 'Shut up!' she screeched. 'Shut up, _shut up, shut up!!'_

'You think what you've felt up to now is pain?' he snarled. 'You think this is suffering? I haven't even started with you yet Kim! Getting rid of your loser BF was just the beginning - by the time I'm through, this cushy life you've got will be _finished_!'

Kim felt her blood roaring in her veins. Her vision seemed to blur around her until Grimm was all she could see, and everything else faded into a blurry redness around him. She struck blindly, recklessly, heedless of her own pain. '_I'll never let you win!'_ she shouted.

'And how are you gonna stop me? I'll chip apart everything you care about, bit by bit until you're left alone in the dark! And when you're reduced to nothing but a shivering, pathetic ball of agony, I'll be living high and laughing at you! _Have you had enough yet?'_

Dr. Possible watched as a wild look of fury blazed in the eyes of his daughter. He had seen her fighting against robots and synthodrones, but he had never seen her like this. And suddenly Grimm spread his arms out, standing in front of her, his eyes and his face swallowed in a calm as icy and cold as Kim's expression was hot and furious.

Her punch connected with a meaty sounding _smack_ that resonated even through the kitchen glass. _'Ow_!' said Jim and Tim together. And Mrs. Dr. Possible gasped, her hand covering her mouth.

Grimm fell with a sliding thud onto the grass and did not get up. Kim was on top of him a moment later, raining blow after blow on his face, his gut and ribs. 'You _jerk!_' she shrieked. 'You _helped_ them! This was all _your_ fault! I _hate you_!!' She paused, taking a deep, shuddering breath.

Grimm stared up at her through one eye. The other eye was already swollen shut. He opened his mouth weakly. 'Had enough?' he said.

Kim raised her fist, a grating breath escaped her throat, almost like the snarl of an animal. She felt all her strength focusing into her arm and balled up her fist, raising it high.

But she felt something seize her arm from behind, a hand curling around her wrist and holding her back. She struggled against it for one moment, her eyes still focused with burning hate on the boy who lay bruised and motionless beneath her. Then she heard a voice in her ear, a familiar authoritarian voice that cut through her rage like a dream from which she suddenly awoke.

'_Stop it!'_

And Kim turned her head, looking up into the face of her father, who was looking down, not at her, but at Grimm.

'Stop it!' he said again. 'She's had enough!'

Kim looked at her wrist, trembling against her father's restraining hand. She saw her mother and her brothers, staring wide-eyed and shocked at her through the sliding glass door. And then there was a faint, raspy laugh. Grimm managed a weak smile as he stared up at her. 'You see...?' he said. 'I... didn't even _need_ the Attitudinator... for you.'

She looked at her knuckles, dotted with red, and burst into tears. Dr. Possible relaxed the hold he had on his daughter's hand as she fought to her feet. Once she was up, he reached out to put his hand on her shoulder and take her back inside, but she suddenly broke away. She ran past him through the rear entrance into the garage, slamming the door behind her. A second later he heard the sound of a car starting, a motor gunning, and the squeal of tires.

Dr. Possible stared back down at Grimm, who was struggling onto his elbows, painfully curling and rising to his knees. 'Was that... _really_ necessary?' he said coldly.

'Yeah.' said Grimm, standing and starting to shuffle towards the kitchen door. 'Until she gets this out of her system, she won't be any good to Ron or anyone else. Your wife's a doctor, right? She might want to look me over and see if anything's busted. And once Kim gets back, we can finally get to work.'

Dr. Possible stared at the young man. Of all the villains who had wound up in his house, there had never been one like him. The 'fight' had been almost entirely one-sided in his daughter's favor. No giant robots had torn up the place, there had been no explosions and no destruction. But he'd never been quite as worried about Kim as he was right now.

'Don't worry.' said Grimm, a feeble shadow of his smirk creeping back onto his face. 'She'll be fine. That is... if you guys have been doing your jobs as parents. If not... she's in for a rough night.'

Dr. Possible felt stung. 'What's _that_ supposed to mean?' he said.

Grimm paused at the sliding door, looking back at him. 'Nothing.' he said, a gleam escaping from his unbruised eye. 'Forget I mentioned it.' Then he went back inside.

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Shego sat at a console table in Drakken's lair, filing and sharpening the clawed ends of her gloves. It was pointless busy-work, as her fingertips were already razor-sharp, but when she wasn't out running errands she liked to _look_ busy. Looking busy was all the pretense she needed to make as if she were annoyed at being interrupted in the middle of something important. And that in turn was all she needed to start dissing whatever schemes Drakken was cooking up.

And right on cue, there was a heavy metallic _clank_ as Drakken slammed an outrageous looking contraption on the table in front of her. It looked like a dragonfly's head on a solid metal base with squiggly aerials jutting out in every direction.

Drakken raised his fists and grinned down at her, manic excitement pulling every muscle on his face into a twisted mask of evil glee. 'Behold, Shego!' he crowed, throwing up his arms and spreading out his hands as if he were parting the Red Sea, 'My latest triumph! The Hypersonic Cerebral Acerbator!'

Shego stared at him coldly. Getting Drakken's goat was one of the only things that she found amusing during lulls, but having to listen to him explain his schemes was the price she had to pay for learning enough about the plan to start poking holes in it. 'So besides having nine syllables in the name, what does it do?'

Drakken gazed lovingly at his creation. 'It emits an undetectable sonic vibration, keyed to specific nerve centers in the brain!' he said, rubbing his hands together. 'It evokes irritation and anger in any person within range of the vibrations, and prolonged exposure will trigger uncontrollable rage and irrational behavior!'

'Uh huh.' said Shego, staring at the device. 'So it broadcasts _your_ voice?'

Drakken's face twitched in the manner that suggested he wanted to respond violently, but had to control it because he knew Shego could mop the floor with him. 'Rrrrr!' he said, gritting his teeth. 'Could you at least _try_ to consider the possibilities? By setting these in strategic locations, we can cause mass hysteria and force entire cities to surrender if they want the affects lifted!'

'And _how_ are we supposed to make demands from them if they're irrational?' she said, keeping her patronizing expression, but smiling inwardly as Drakken's face shifted from blue to purple, blood rushing to his face.

'We leave City Hall unaffected and make our demands from _them_!' he said in his grating voice. 'Head in the game, Shego!'

Shego shrugged, putting down her file. '_Fine_.' she said, rolling her eyes. She'd had her fun, and though she never planned to admit it, the idea had legs. It was on to her next phase, and that was doing whatever cockamamie jobs Drakken wanted in order to implement the plan on a large scale. 'So we need - what? Disco balls, coat hangers and glue?'

Drakken looked furious and his mouth was open to say something, but at that moment there was a thundering _boom_ followed by a crash as the heavy vaulted door to the lair was knocked straight out of its hydraulic frame, falling onto the floor, a huge dented impression in the center of the thick metal.

Silhouetted against the brighter light from outside, two figures were standing in the now empty doorway. One was tall and thin, carrying a staff in his hand. The other was shorter but more broad, his large fist raised in the air.

'Sorry - knocked too hard.' said a smooth voice. 'May we come in?'

Shego got to her feet, staring at the figures. At first she thought it was Hego, or maybe Kim Possible had Hego's power again, but neither of them looked female, and neither were as muscular as Hego.

'Monkey Fist?' said Drakken, staring in amazement at the newcomers. 'What are _you_ doing here? And since when can you knock down security bulkheads?

'We come to offer you a deal.' he said. 'We have acquired components which will rebuild the device which the buffoon used to broadcast his signal from the Mega Synaptic Transducer.'

'You didn't rebuild _that_ thing, did you?' said Drakken, a look of panic on his face.

'Oh no, no no.' said Monkey Fist quickly. 'We have... _other_ signals in mind to broadcast. But we require your skills to assemble a _larger_ version of the device.'

'And... what's in it for me?' said Drakken suspiciously.

'A place,' said Monkey Fist, smiling darkly. 'In the new world order.'

'A _place_?' said Drakken, sounding dismissive at once. 'Sorry - not interested! With me it's the whole ball of wax or _nothing! _Shego - show them the door!'

Shego smirked and shook her head, gesturing to the dented slab of metal lying on the floor. 'It's right there where you left it.' she said jeeringly.

Drakken's face purpled again. 'I mean show them _out_ the door!'

Shego twitched two of her fingers like a stick person walking. 'OK, you move your feet, and you walk in the direction of the biiiig gaping hole...'

Drakken was gritting his teeth and pulling at his hair, babbling in fury. 'Rrrrr! Nnn! Throw... out... Nnnn! Door!' Maze and Monkey Fist simply watched in amusement until at last Monkey Fist stepped forward.

'I suppose in the short term,' he said, glancing at Shego, 'We can offer you something in exchange for your help that you may find useful. Have you ever wished that your... _lackey_ was more obedient?'

Shego glared, but Drakken looked up at the ceiling, spreading his hands. 'Like every _minute_!' he said.

'Hey!' Shego grimaced.

'I thought so.' said Monkey Fist. 'As a first payment of sorts, allow us to rectify her surly nature...'

Shego didn't know exactly what he was talking about, but she went into a fighting stance at once, powering up her hands with a green glow. 'Back off, rock boy!' she snarled. 'Unless you want me to chisel you a new face!'

But Monkey Fist was clenching his hands, his expression suddenly blazing in fierce concentration. His eyes glowed a bright yellow, and then twin beams of energy lanced out. Before Shego could react, she found herself bathed in the light. It didn't hurt, but she suddenly felt her limbs getting stiffer, and heavier. A sensation of numbness sapped all the feeling from her arms and legs, and as the sensation spread to the rest of her body, she opened her mouth to scream.

Drakken cowered behind a chair at his console table, peering around the Hypersonic Acerbator. The yellow glow faded and he stood up. Shego was still standing and staring at Monkey Fist, but she was not moving. 'Shego?' he said timidly.

Monkey Fist strode forward and seized her by the shoulders, turning her around so she faced Drakken. And Drakken's mouth fell open in amazement. Shego had been petrified. Every visible portion of her skin was stiff and gray, a look of anger and horror was frozen on her face. 'There now - that's much better, isn't it?' said Monkey Fist, putting an arm around Shego and patting her on the shoulder with a hollow _thunking_ noise. 'So much easier to have a civil conversation without her making insolent comments every fifteen seconds.'

Drakken sputtered. 'What have you _done_?' he snarled, though there was a fearful edge to his voice, 'Turning her into a statue is your idea of making her more _obedient_? Only if the orders are 'stand still' or 'be a garden fountain'!'

The other figure, who had been silent up to this point, stepped forward. 'No, blue one.' he said quietly. 'What we offer is so much _more_ than that.' And suddenly he clamped his fingers around Shego's left hand and began to chant.

_Emet - Sipimottakiksi,_

_Nikaahtomaana nitaanistsi'toyiiwa!_

_Emet - Sipimottakiksi, _

_Nikaahtomaana nitaanistsi'toyiiwa!_

There was a hissing sound, a plume of smoke, and then he drew back. Drakken saw three strange signs branded on Shego's hand where he had touched her.

_Then she began to move_. She stood straight and ready, like a robot waiting for a command.

'Cluck like a chicken.' said Monkey Fist, a smirk creeping onto his stone face. Shego immediately made a series of clucking noises, though her voice had a stony, emotionless quality to it. 'You see?' said Monkey Fist. '_Total obedience_. And we can supply you with others, should the need strike you.'

'Total obedience...' Drakken muttered, as if he were remembering some distant memory.

'Think it over.' Monkey Fist said, and he and Maze turned and walked towards the exit. 'When you accept, we'll be in touch.'

'Wait a minute!' Drakken shouted. 'If I do go along with this deal, how am I supposed to _build_ this thing you want without any schematics?'

'We'll arrange to have you taken to our base of operations when the time comes.' Monkey Fist said, pausing at the door. 'In the meanwhile... enjoy your new toy.' he turned to Shego, who was standing motionless again. 'Shego - _obey_ Dr. Drakken.' Then they turned and left.

Drakken stared at the gray, motionless statue for a moment, biting his lip. He waved his hand in front of her eyes, but she didn't react in any way. 'Ah... Can you _hear_ me Shego?' he said tentatively.

'Yes.' Shego answered at once.

Drakken glanced back towards the Cerebral Acerbator, which had toppled over in all the commotion. 'Tell me... do you _like_ my latest invention?'

Shego paused. 'I do not like or dislike it. I can do nothing except what you command.'

Drakken's face broke into a hesitant smile. 'Say that it's brilliant.' he said.

'Your latest invention is brilliant.' she answered.

Drakken stood up fully, his evil grin back in place. 'Come with me to the kitchen, Shego.' he said. 'There's an apron and oven mitts waiting there, I believe. I have some _cooking_ I'd like you to do...'

Coming Soon:

_No amount of success elsewhere_

_can compensate for failure here._


	13. Ch 12: Home

A Friend In Darkness

All Things Probable 3

A Kim Possible Fanfiction

by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and its affiliates, etc. etc.

Chapter 12  
Home

_Or: Be It Ever So Hobbled_

The atmosphere in the Possible kitchen had rarely been so strained. Grimm Probable was sitting on a stool near the breakfast nook. Mrs. Dr. Possible had her medical bag on the table with various supplies spread out next to it. She was holding a penlight and inspecting Grimm's chin, eyes, nose and teeth.

'It's actually not that bad.' Mrs. Dr. Possible said, putting down her penlight and taking up a long cotton swab. She opened a bottle containing a violet colored liquid and began dipping the swab into it. 'The bruising is mostly superficial.' She looked at him warily. 'You didn't let her hit you as hard as you let on.' she said.

Grimm shrugged. 'When you're in my line of work, the first thing you learn is how to roll with the punches.'

'Well, there are no broken bones.' She went on, 'And the bleeding has already stopped...'

'I've always been a quick healer.' said Grimm, but he winced as Mrs. Possible swabbed his lip. 'Ow!' Grimm said, flinching as Mrs. Dr. Possible swabbed his lip again. 'What _is_ that stuff?'

'Iodine.' said Mrs. Dr. Possible, her voice and her expression very frosty. 'Burning, _stinging_ iodine.'

Grimm glared at her briefly, then glanced to Mr. Dr. Possible, who was looking at him grimly, and then at the twins. Even their expressions were distinctly cold. '_What_?' he said at last. 'What's with you people? She was the one who beat the tar out of _me_, not the other way 'round.'

'You said some pretty harsh things during that fight, young man.' said Mr. Dr. Possible. 'And you may have thought you had a good reason. But that doesn't mean it was the _right_ thing to do.'

'I did it for her _benefit_.' said Grimm, looking ruffled. 'She wanted to extract her pound of flesh the moment I turned up - everyone knew it. But she's such a goody-two-shoes she would never have done it without a reason. I did her a favor by making it easy to haul off on me and you're acting like I did something horrible.'

'I don't think you understand my daughter at all.' said Mr. Dr. Possible, shaking his head. 'She didn't need an excuse, and she certainly wasn't looking for you to provide one. If she had decided to work with you to find Ron, she'd have done it without a second thought. She's worked with her enemies before, and been none the worse off for it. She's a better person than you think.'

Grimm sniffed, but a shadow of uncertainty sped across his eyes before he could conceal it. 'Even if you're right, there would still have been doubt and anger under the surface.' he said. 'She has to get through that before we can team up and make it _work_.'

'If you thought hitting her with all that psycho-babble was going to _remove_ doubt from her mind, then you really don't get it.' Mr. Dr. Possible said. 'If you want to make a go of this, then you should apologize when she gets back.'

Grimm looked surprised. '_Apologize_?' he said. 'For what? For not letting her hit me _enough_?'

'I don't have to tell you what to apologize for. You _know_ what needs to be smoothed over.' Mr. Dr. Possible stared at him.

Grimm's eyes were steely and defiant. 'How about you _tell_ me what I '_know_'?' he said.

'I'm starting to see why she doesn't like you.' said Mr. Dr. Possible. 'You're always piping up with a clever turn of phrase to twist things around on whoever you're talking to. If you want it straight mister, here you go. Tell her you're sorry for what you did out there, then just _ask_ her for help. She's all about helping people. Let your guard down a little and you might be surprised.'

'When a person gets _surprised_ it means they were careless.' Grimm said. 'Only an _idiot_ lets his guard down.'

'If you're _serious_ about wanting to work with her to find Ron and your friend, you'll have to fix things so that you and Kim can be in close proximity without either of you wanting to flatten the other.' Mr. Dr. Possible said firmly. 'And that's not going to happen as long as you keep playing your little game of one-upmanship. If you can't wrap that clever head of yours around that fact, you're wasting your time here.' He looked to Mrs. Dr. Possible, flashing the knowing expression married couples used when they wanted to say, '_What do you think dear?'_ without speaking.

Mrs. Dr. Possible walked over to the cookie jar on the counter, took out one cookie and handed it to Grimm. Grimm stared up at her, looking confused.

'Something to _chew_ on.' she said.

Grimm let out a single breathy chuckle. 'That was pretty good.' he said quietly.

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Mr. Stoppable looked out of the window into his backyard, his eyes traveling up the rough trunk of a large tree where a ramshackle assortment of planks and boards formed a crude house nestled in the upper branches.

His wife came and stood next to him, with Hana cradled in her arms. 'Is she... still up there?' she said.

Mr. Stoppable nodded. 'For over half an hour.'

Mrs. Stoppable shook her head. 'The poor dear.' she said. 'I was getting the mail when her car came screeching to a halt by the curb. Then she tore through the yard and climbed up into the treehouse without saying a word.' She paused, looking at her husband while readjusting Hana in the crook of her elbow. 'She was crying. Should we... do something to comfort her?'

Mr. Stoppable looked up into the swaying branches and leaves which wafted around the treehouse. 'This _is_ my way of comforting her.' he said, shrugging.

Mrs. Stoppable sighed. 'That's your answer to _everything_...'she said softly.

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_Ron was dweedling his lips. He had one finger extended and was twitching it up and down while humming. He had been doing it for some time and was experimenting with different techniques, trying to get a greater range of pitch. It was stupid and boring, but without anything else to do, he found himself putting more and more effort into it. He was thinking that he was just getting good enough to add it to his talent show act when Rhonda's voice interrupted his rhythm._

_'Will you stop that?' she said, sounding irritated._

_'Aw, come on.' he said. 'Might as well make the best of it. After all, we could b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-be here for some time.'_

_Rhonda laughed, but her laugh was off. It was the kind of laugh one normally heard from a person who was sick in the hospital, the kind of laugh that was used to put up a brave face._

_Ron was just about to switch from lip dweedles to duck calls when he saw something in front of him. It was sudden and intense. The mists in front of him seemed to swirl and part. And again as if he were looking through a grimy window, he saw Kim._

_It took him a moment to realize where she was, but when he dimly saw a torn and faded poster of Steel Toe on the wall behind her, he knew she was in his treehouse. She was curled up almost in a huddle on the couch, her face buried in her hands._

_'Kim!' Ron shouted. He waved and shouted wildly, trying to bend closer towards the vision in front of him. But Kim didn't seem to hear him. She remained on the couch, not moving except for her breathing, which was staggered and lurching as she sobbed. He yelled her name several times, trying vainly to get her attention, but the vision faded, spreading out like smoke until it blended in with the shadows around them and vanished._

_Ron stood, a feeling of disappointed excitement rushing through him. He thought that people who saw mirages in the desert must feel something like this - rushing forward desperately, hoping to find cool water, only to find more sand dunes._

_Rhonda had watched him eagerly. 'It happened again, didn't it?' she said, and there was an odd edge to her voice. 'You saw your GF?'_

_'Yeah - I saw her!' he was still waving his hands through the mists where he had seen the vision, hoping to part the shadows again and restore it. 'I wasn't imagining things!' he said. 'She was... crying though.'_

_'That's not fair!' Rhonda yelled suddenly. And Ron flinched, seeing with discomfort that Rhonda was crying too. 'I miss Grimm as much as you miss her!' she yelled. 'How come you can see her and I can't see him? It's not fair!!' And she turned away from him, hiding her face._

_Ron bit his lip, confused by her sudden outburst. 'Uh... are you ok?' he said._

_'No I'm not ok!' Rhonda shouted. 'This place hurts! It feels like someone keeps jabbing me with something sharp, it's been like that since we got here! Can't you feel it?'_

_Ron shrugged and spread out his hand in confusion. 'N... no.' he said, not sure what to do._

_This seemed to agitate Rhonda even more. 'That's not fair either!' she shouted. 'You can see your GF, this place doesn't hurt you - what's wrong with me? There's no difference between us!'_

_'Except you're a girl...' Ron said, off-handedly. '... and the evil and everything.'_

_But this made Rhonda stop, and she looked thoughtful. 'Is... that what's causing it?' she said. 'You think I'm feeling pain here because I'm... evil?'_

_Ron shrugged again. 'I didn't say that.' he said. 'I just don't think I'm feeling what you're feeling.'_

_'I don't like what I'm feeling!' Rhonda yelled, and she looked almost hysterical. 'I want to see Grimm, I want to go home!' And she hung her head, curling her knuckles against her brows, and cried. 'I want to go home...' she sobbed._

_Ron felt helpless. Normally he would have looked to Kim for 'girl help', not knowing how to speak hysterical. All his normal jokey comments seemed somehow inappropriate. 'Rhonda - what can I say?' he said at last. 'I don't know how to get us back, and... I don't know how to let you see Grimm. I'm not even sure I know how I'm seeing Kim - it just kind of happens...'_

_Rhonda seemed to be composing herself, but only barely. 'Well...' she said. 'If it's your goody-two-shooeyness that's letting you do it... I'll try anything, I can't stand it anymore! If it keeps going on like this I'm gonna lose it! Can you help me... please?'_

_Ron bit his lip. This was Rhonda - Grimm's partner. The team that had put them through so much misery. If anyone deserved to suffer it was them. Team Probable had spent so much time sticking it to Kim and to himself. Now was his chance to stick it right back to them. He wondered for one moment how much satisfaction it might bring him to let Rhonda stew in it..._

_And at once he felt a painful feeling jolt through him. He winced, looking around to see if someone had stuck him with a pin or something. But the sensation passed at once. He felt confused, wondering if that flash of pain was what Rhonda had been feeling. It had hit him when he thought about how nice it would feel to cause pain to someone else - a thing that someone evil might do. _

_He looked at Rhonda. She looked truly pitiful. Her blue eyes were pooled with tears, her pupils were twice as wide as normal. Her lower lip was sticking out and both her hands were clasped as if praying._

_'The puppy-dog pout?' he thought to himself. 'She knows it too?' but he looked at her again and sighed. 'Aw man...' he said out loud. 'All right, I'll help!'_

_Rhonda's lip trembled and she sniffled, drawing her hand across her nose. 'Thanks...' she said, her voice almost a whisper._

_'Well don't thank me yet.' he said, cracking his knuckles. 'I hope you're ready, cuz you're about to get a crash course in the Ron Stoppable School of Good Vibrations!'_

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Kim sat curled up on the couch in Ron's treehouse. Her face felt stiff in places from where tears had dried on her skin, but other parts of her face felt slick and hot as fresh tears streamed down. She'd lost track of how long she had been there, and didn't even notice when Rufus scampered up, having followed her from the house. He didn't disturb her, he simply stood on the nearby box that served as a side table, staring at her with a sad expression. Thought and memory swirled in her mind as she continued crying.

_'Do you know what I really hate?' Kim said, staring into Shego's eyes._

_'That your date melted?' Shego answered, a wicked smile on her face._

_'No - you.' Kim said. There was a kick, a flash of blue light and Kim watched as Shego flew back dozens of yards into the tower that Drakken had been using to control the Diablos. Kim felt a dark satisfaction as the tower collapsed, standing and staring at the burning wreckage while rain cascaded around her and lightning flared. All the turmoil and trouble that Drakken and Shego had caused - she had enjoyed making them pay for hurting her, and Ron, and everyone else._

_But she had felt ashamed later. Shego could have been killed. Luckily, she was as tough as she was snarky, and had come out with only minor injuries. _

_And Grimm was lying on the grass in her lawn. The same feeling of satisfaction was pounding through her as she struck him again and again. Each blow she landed felt like payment and justice for everything he'd done. The feel of her fists vibrating as they connected with his skin and bone was oddly... pleasant._

Until she'd felt her father's hand restraining her, holding her back. The fear in his voice, the look of revulsion in the eyes of her own family. Another gush of tears slid down her cheeks, trailing along the path of others that had streamed down already. She had wanted to hurt Grimm - to injure him, even though he had done little more than speak _words_ to her.

_'I didn't even need the Attitudinator for you.'_

She had never been hit with the Attitudinator. She had no idea what she would be like if it happened, and shuddered to think of it. Ron had become a dangerous monster. What would she become? If she was capable of attacking Shego as she did in the Diablo sitch, and if she was capable of beating an enemy who wasn't even defending himself...

She heard a voice in the back of her head repeating excuses over and over. _He had it coming. He was asking for it - literally asking it. He said horrible things about you, about Ron. He was laughing at your misery and pain. No one in the world would just sit there and let him get away with what he did - he deserved what he got._

She bit her lip and held herself. If her father hadn't stopped her, she would have kept striking him - without regard for how badly he might be injured or what damage she inflicted. She had _wanted_ to hurt him.

_Anything's possible for a Possible._

It always sounded so positive when her father said it. It was a confidence booster. It was a proud declaration that no matter what a Possible was up against, they would pull through. No matter what obstacle was set in a Possible's way, they could overcome it. She could do anything.

_She had wanted to hurt someone._

She couldn't stop crying. She had beaten Grimm - she had trashed him. So why did she feel like she _lost_? She wanted Ron back - now more than ever. He would have said, or done something to snap her out of it, to make her laugh, to forget the pain she was feeling. But he was gone, and the pain was all she had left. She wanted to see him, to hold him, to have him hold her. He was her touchstone, her anchor. And as she wept, she thought for a moment that she could actually hear his voice calling out to her...

She heard a beeping from her wrist. Wade. She didn't want to answer, because she knew it meant talking about the sitch that was still waiting for her back at home. But she smoothed her hair as best she could and wiped her eyes with her gloves. She sat up, then sighed and turned on the Kimmunicator.

'What's the sitch?' she said, sounding almost formal with the effort she put into composing her voice.

'I've gone over everything they gave us.' Wade said. He was looking at her curiously. His screen at home was hi-definition and she knew that despite herself, she must be a mess. But to his credit, Wade said nothing about it and went on. 'I figured you'd like to discuss it.'

'Yeah.' she said. 'First off - Ron. Grimm had that recording of me chanting something at the UNIT labs. Was it another one of his tricks?'

Wade sighed. 'No trick. So far it all checks out.' he said. 'I've called in favors with all the friends I have who know Algonquian, and the translation is just what Grimm said it was. It goes, _Shadows dark and still, hear your master's will - Let my foes be overwhelmed, banished to the spirit realm._'

Kim stared at him. 'Is that the _literal_ translation?' she said suspiciously.

Wade looked shifty for a moment. 'Well, I fiddled it a little so it rhymed.' he said. 'But I also quadruple-checked the voice pattern. It was slightly distorted, but there's no doubt about it. It was _your _voice speaking the incantation.'

'I don't remember speaking it.' said Kim.

'That would tally with Jade's description of how Maze possesses his victims.' Wade answered. 'Somehow he can project his consciousness into other people, and it seems to totally suppress the victim's awareness.'

'But he was chanting himself when it happened.' Kim said. 'Could it have just been some kind of hypnosis?'

Wade shook his head doubtfully. 'If it was, then it's like no other hypnosis I've ever heard of. Even the best hypnotists need more than a few minutes to induce a trance, and it almost always requires some kind of cooperation from the participant. Maze's power is a lot faster, and more effective.'

'And it's been days now. Is there anything from Ron's chip?'

Wade shook his head again. 'Kim, if Ron was anywhere on Earth, I'd have found traces. Even with the machine Monkey Fist is using to cloak their base, Ron's chip would have left some kind of electronic bread crumbs in areas where he might have traveled. But there's nothing at all.'

'So... you think there really is something to this... spirit world business?'

'I'm going with 'alternate dimension'.' he said. 'But... yeah. Given our data, and their data... there's no other explanation.'

'So how do we get them back?' Kim said. 'This isn't the first time we've dealt with extra-dimensional technology. Can we use any of the devices we've encountered before and apply them to this sitch?'

'Justine Flanner's Kinomatic Continuum Disruptor created unstable rifts in space and time, not portals to unknown dimensions, so that's out.' he answered. 'And Drakken's modified Pan-Dimensional Vortex inducer didn't send people to alternate dimensions, it projected you into a _simulated_ reality that mimicked television shows. And we can't configure it to mimic the dimension where Ron and Rhonda were sent, because we don't have a reference point to where they actually are.'

'And even if we did, it wouldn't be... _real_.' said Kim, shaking her head.

'Afraid not.' said Wade. 'The Vortex Inducer made it _seem _real for the people affected, but the things that happened weren't permanent, otherwise Drakken and Shego would have been stuck in it forever.'

'Which wouldn't have made up for being on Space Passage...' said Kim darkly.

'Yeah...' said Wade, glancing off to the side. 'Anyhoo, the only sure way to re-create the conditions of the banishment, and maybe _undo_ the banishing, means tracking down the person who created it in the first place.'

'Maze.' said Kim.

'I think Grimm's serious about wanting to track him down and make him bring Rhonda back. With his insider knowledge, a limited partnership could be the way to go.'

Kim lowered her head, looking away from the Kimmunicator screen. 'So _not_ what I wanted to hear.' she said. I really don't want him this close to the family. Do we even need them anymore? Can we just use the stuff they supplied and go on without him?'

'We... could _try_.' Wade said, but his voice was doubtful. 'Thing is, they still have info that I don't think they shared. They didn't tell me everything that they thought Monkey Fist and Maze gathered for whatever it is they're building. That could be critical.'

'And ten to one, they hold onto that info and use it to keep us on the hook.' Kim said.

Wade nodded slightly. 'Kim, I think we should play along, at least until we get more information. If it comes to a point where we know enough about what's going on, we can back out.'

Kim felt the uncomfortable certainty closing around her like one of Drakken's death traps. To get Ron back, she needed to find and stop Maze and Monkey Fist. But Monkey Fist was tapping into the Yono's power somehow. She was sure that Maze had something to do with how their petrified victims were animated, but she had no idea how he was doing it. After what happened in Graniton, she knew they were too strong for her to fight solo, even with the battle suit. She needed backup. And there was no denying that Grimm was competent and capable, that he had connections and cunning. And, she thought resentfully, he was no slouch in a fight.

But he was also devious, cold, calculating and above all, untrustworthy. Given what had happened in the backyard, she had no doubt that Grimm had even more psychological barbs to throw at her. Even if Grimm was sincere in his offer of help, how could she believe anything he had to say? How could she be sure it wasn't part of yet another twisted game?

She needed Ron to help keep her level-headed. And her heart fell, because if Ron was there, she wouldn't need to team up with Grimm in the first place. Until she had him back safe, she would need someone else to help her - someone she trusted to keep her grounded in reality.

'All right.' said Kim, gripping the armrest on the couch. 'But I think I'll also need... some moral support.'

- + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - +

Monique lay on top of her bed at home, thumbing through the latest copy of _Teen Scene_ magazine. She skipped through most of the text, instead focusing on the pictures, both in the articles and in the ads. 'Tacky.' she said flatly, flipping to the next page. 'Boring.' she said, turning to the next page. 'Throwback.' she said, and continued like that for several minutes, mostly dissing, but occasionally pausing to look more closely before voicing a positive remark. 'Hmm. _Potential_.' she said at last, looking over some of the fashions on a two-page spread.

She rolled up to a sitting position and pulled a sketch pad from her desk, knocking over some make-up paraphernalia and nearly up-ending her jewelry box. She winced with annoyance as she heard the clattering sound of lipstick and other such items rolling around on her desk. She knew she'd have to clean it up eventually, but couldn't bring herself to pull away from the inspiration that was gnawing at her mind. She laid the sketch pad across her knees and slid the magazine to the side of her hip and began drawing.

Figures, designs and alterations flew through her vision and she tweaked each sketch, trying different methods of how the cloth hung, how it was pleated, and the body types of her sketches. She glanced across the room to where she had her sewing machine set up. There were plastic storage bins on either side of the desk where the machine was mounted, each containing bolts of cloth. Scissors, spools of thread and other equipment were mounted on a pegboard on the wall in front of the sewing machine, hanging by small metal hooks. A full sized dummy on a stand was mounted in the corner of the room, already wearing a plain white frock.

There were times when designing simply interfered with her desire to experiment, and there were times when having to actually sew was a chore that got in the way of designing, but as she loved both designing and experimenting, it was simply finding the balance of mood and inspiration which made her a Fashionista in her own right. Right now, it was designing that motivated her. The fashions in the _Teen Scene_ ad looked good, but they only looked _good_, and the overall design had given her some _great_ ideas for newer fashions that would look absolutely stunning...

She heard the doorbell buzzing downstairs and tried to ignore it. It buzzed again, but she kept drawing. On the third buzz, she finally shouted out. 'Will _someone_ get that?' She had her pencil poised above the sketch pad, listening for the door to be opened. The doorbell rang again, and she threw down her pad in frustration, heaving herself up and throwing her door open.

_'Honestly - sometimes I bet people wonder if I even have a family!'_ she thought in frustration as she stormed into the hall, down the stairs and hastened to the door. The bell was just ringing again when she pulled the door open. She had hoped it was a salesperson or something so she could tell them to buzz off or foist them off on her parents, but her short temper vanished when she saw it was Kim.

She started saying, 'What up, girlfriend?' but as she said the word _up_, she could see that something was wrong. Kim looked frazzled, bedraggled, almost stunned. Her hair was mussed and she seemed as discomposed as if she had been in a fight. Her eyes had a look of worry in them, mingled with something else she didn't recognize. 'Kim...?' she said again.

'Monique...' Kim said, and she was looking down as if ashamed. 'I need your help.'

And in less than a minute, Monique was sitting on the couch in her living room with Kim sitting across from her in the easy chair. She listened as Kim told her everything that had happened, with her own emotions ranging from interest, to shock, to sympathy, then outrage and back again. When Kim finished, Monique leaned back in her chair.

'Woah.' she said, shaking her head. 'I mean... _woah_.'

'Yeah, tell me about it.' said Kim, running a hand across her forehead.

'So... why did you come _here_?' said Monique, though she had a prickle in the back of her neck that told her trouble was ahead.

'I've sort of made up my mind to give working with him a try.' Kim said, but she sounded resentful even as she spoke. 'Until this is over, could you... watch my back?'

Monique put up her hand. 'Oh _no_ girl!' she said. 'You're my best friend, but the last time I went out sidekicking with you, I nearly got woven into the latest nightmare slated for the Paris runways!'

'Monique _please_.' Kim said, and Monique could never remember her sounding more serious. 'I can't do this by myself, not with Grimm.'

Monique stared. She'd never known Kim to be _intimidated_ before, not against Shego, nor against any of her other pug-ugly foes. And there was something in her eyes that told Monique that Kim wasn't worried about _fighting _him. It was something else. 'What is it about this guy anyway?' she said.

'I just... don't want to be _alone_ with him.' Kim said, looking embarrassed. 'He's a user, a _player_. Take the sitch with Eric, then amp up the angst about ten times and you'll have Grimm in a nutshell.'

Monique raised an eyebrow. 'Come _on_ girl, he can't be that bad.'

'Monique, I'm _serious._' Kim said, and there was pleading in her voice. 'I have to find Ron, to bring him back. But if Grimm is helping, or if he's in on it in any way... You wouldn't have to do any fighting or anything, it won't be dangerous. I just need someone to keep Grimm off _balance_.'

Monique looked doubtful. Kim had a different idea about what things were dangerous and what things weren't. But Kim was still speaking.

'Please - I _need_ a friend on this one.'

Monique sighed and slumped her shoulders in defeat. 'I must be _outta_ my mind...' she said.

Kim smiled warmly. 'Thanks, Monique.'

Monique looked up. 'You're serious now - _no fighting_?' Kim shook her head. 'So... what _do _I have to do?' Monique said.

Kim was still smiling. 'I think just... being _you_ is the best way to go.' she said.

Monique smiled as well. 'Got _that_ right.' she said.

- + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - +

As Kim pulled into her driveway later, she saw dim shapes through the glass in the windows which told her that her parents had been watching for her. She waited in the car for a moment, sighing and steeling herself for what might come next. She went into the house and found them in the living room, looking at her expectantly.

'How are you feeling, Kimmy-cub?' Mr. Dr. Possible said.

Kim wasn't sure how to answer honestly. 'I'm... fine.' she said, though she felt anything but fine. 'Where is he?'

Mrs. Dr. Possible looked back towards the kitchen. 'He went into the backyard a few minutes ago.' she said. 'Haven't seen him since then.' Kim turned and walked into the kitchen, headed for the sliding glass door. 'Kim...' Mrs. Dr. Possible started, but felt her husband's hand on her shoulder. He shook his head and they both stayed in the living room, hearing the kitchen door slide open and then shut again.

Kim looked around the whole yard, but there was no sign of Grimm. She slipped over the fence and started looking around in the hilly, wooded area behind her house. She had never explored it much, except to look at it from above while parachuting down to her backyard after missions. She was just wondering if Grimm had actually split town when she saw a slightly flattened set of patches in the grass which indicated someone had passed that way. She followed until she was under the eaves of the woods, then she stopped.

Grimm was sitting on the stump of a tree a few yards away, the sunlight filtering through the leaves far above tinting everything with a yellowish green. The flying motorcycle she'd seen him riding at the Yoyodyne labs was parked next to him. His back was to her, and his communicator was in his hand. It looked like he was arguing with someone.

As quietly as she could, she stepped nearer until she could hear better. Besides Grimm, she could hear Jade's tinny voice in the still air of the trees.

'I need you out here Jade - I'm in the middle of a stinger's nest and I want some backup!'

Jade's voice almost sounded offended. 'G-man, you know I don't work like that, and neither do you! What happened to _'leave no trace you were ever there'? _Look at you - working in broad daylight, actually calling in Leigh...'

'I _know,_ Jade!' Grimm said. 'That's why I can't do this alone! If Rhonda were here it would be different, but...' He trailed off suddenly.

After a pause, Jade spoke. 'If Rhonda were there, you wouldn't need Kim in the first place.' she said. And Kim felt a twinge of deja vu, hearing Grimm and Jade come to almost the same conclusion she had come to herself.

'Well... she's _not_, and I _do_.' Grimm said sullenly.

'So how did it go?' said Jade. 'Did she buy it?'

'I'm not sure.' Grimm answered. 'I'm waiting to find out.'

'What's to wait for?' said Jade, confused. 'You're right_ there_ - can't you just ask?'

'She sort of... ran off.' Grimm said.

There was silence for a moment. 'Why did she do _that_?' Jade said at last.

Grimm sighed. 'I wanted to make sure she got through any resentment from our... previous encounters.' he said. 'So I pushed her into letting it all out.'

'_How_?' said Jade, though her tone indicated she already knew the answer to her own question.

Kim listened as Grimm described the events that took place in her house, and the fight in the backyard. It was weird hearing it from _his_ perspective, but when he was finished, Jade's voice sounded out almost in a shriek.

'You did _what??_'

'Pipe down!' Grimm hissed. 'What's your damage? I do that kind of stuff to the good guys all the time!'

'When you're working _against _them, yeah! But not when you're trying to talk them into working _with_ you!' Jade said. 'Jeez mon! Why didn't you go over this with me beforehand?'

'I didn't see the need!' Grimm said. 'You know I don't _consult_ about stuff like this - and even if I had, would you have gone along with it?'

'No!' said Jade. 'I'd have suggested something more sensible. I can think of at least a dozen ways you could have done it without going all... _Grimmy_ on her!'

'You sound just like her _parents_.' Grimm said peevishly. 'Look, she wanted to get even! I just gave her a reason and an excuse! Once she simmers down...'

'You can't wind someone up like that and expect them to chum up to you later!' Jade said. '_Normal_ people don't work that way!'

'Kim's not _normal_, she's exceptional!' Grimm snapped.

'Have you ever _told _her that?' Jade said. 'That might actually _help_ you know. I know you like cheesing her off because you respect her as an adversary. Why didn't you say you'd respect her as an _ally_ on this one?'

Grimm didn't answer for a second. 'I know what I'm doing...' he said at last.

'Do you?' Jade broke in. 'I never wondered before, but you actually went too far this time. You'll be lucky if she doesn't paste you again when she comes back, never mind _teaming up_ with you.'

'If that's what it takes, I'm game!' Grimm said, sounding angry. 'She can wale on me all she wants, I don't care! As long as it helps bring Rhonda back...'

'Grimm,' she said, and her voice sounded a lot more serious, 'Kim's hurting too. And I don't think she's torked off because she wants to get even with you - she's upset because she misses Ron.'

'Then she should be _grateful_ I turned up.' said Grimm. 'Bringing Rhonda back almost certainly means bringing Ron back with her. And when you factor in what we're up against, then toughening her up a little will _help_ in the long term.'

Jade sounded exasperated. 'Grimm, you're the smartest guy I know when it comes to getting someone's goat, but when it comes to actually _helping_ someone - you're dumber than ditch water.'

'Isn't that why I'm here?' he said, frustrated. 'Because I need _help_? I've told her as plain as I can...'

'No you _haven't_.' said Jade. 'You insulted her BF, threatened to destroy her life and danced around in front of her after you lawyered up chanting 'nyah, nyah, nyah'. What did you _think_ was going to happen?'

Grimm looked like he was bristling. 'If she doesn't work out her anger, it'll always be roiling beneath the surface - I _can't_ risk that happening in the field! Maze and Monkey Fist are too dangerous...'

'And after she socked you, did she calm down right away?' Jade said. 'Did bofh of you have a couple of sodas and laugh about it? That's a _guy_ thing Grimm - when you hurt a girl's feelings, they don't just forget about it after trading a few punches.'

'Rhonda was never like that...!'

'Rhonda's in _love_ with you Grimm! But Kim's not just gonna forgive you for stuff like Rhonda does!'

Grimm looked stunned. 'Rhonda...?' he said. 'Forgive me for _what_? I've never done anything to her!'

Jade made a tinny sounding sigh. 'Grimm, this might be news to you, but being a teen mercenary hasn't been as easy for her as she lets on.'

Grimm didn't answer for several seconds. 'What are you talking about?' he said at last. 'She's always been rock solid...'

'Yeah - well, she's _not_.' Jade said. 'Hobnobbing with the ne'er-do-wells of society, always wondering how much longer you can stay ahead of things, always worrying that someday you'll get taken down by a hero, or a disgruntled _client_... That thing with Maze back at Kwitcherbeliakin really spooked her Grimm. And it didn't help that you seemed more concerned about helping her develop her powers than you were about how she _felt_...'

Again there was silence. At last he spoke again, but this time his voice sounded not in a defiant epithet, but as a pleading question. 'Well, _what_ then?' he said. 'The Great Bear isn't answering me. I _need _Kim to find Monkey Fist - and Maze. There's no other way I can think of. What am I supposed to do?'

'For starters, you should listen to your techie.' said Kim. 'She's come closer to the mark than you ever have.' Grimm stood up and turned to face her at once, putting his communicator into his hip pouch. There were red patches in his cheeks, visible even through the bruising around his eye.

'What did you _hear_?' he said.

'I heard... _enough_.' Kim answered.

They both stared darkly at each other in silence. The only sounds were the rustlings in the undergrowth and the leaves sighing overhead. Rueful's head poked out of a backpack lying on the seat of the bike and he looked back and forth between them.

'What's it gonna take to make this work?' Grimm said, glaring at her.

Kim didn't answer, but kept staring at him.

'What do you_ want_?' he hissed. 'Money? Name your price! You want blood? Hit me again - I won't say a word! Do you want me to _beg_? I'll do that too!'

Again, Kim didn't answer. For the first time, she could almost see through the aura of invulnerability he usually projected and glimpsed the troubled heart of a guy who had finally run out of ideas. She understood at last, that the reason he had done what he did by goading her was because he did _everything_ that way. And so he had asked for her help by playing her, because it was the only way he knew how.

'First tell me.' she said. 'What do _you_ want?'

Grimm sniffed. 'So now you want to get into _my_ head?' He looked at her angrily. 'What do _I _want? Why do you think I even came here? Why do you think I traveled this far and set myself at risk? Why do you think I'm bowing and scraping to _you_ of all people?'

'Stop answering questions with questions!' Kim said. '_What do you want?'_

For a moment, he looked so angry she thought he was going to throw a punch. Then he lowered his head, closing his eyes and clenching his fists. 'I want Rhonda back.' he said at last. 'I _need_ her back! Please - _what do you want?_'

'I've already _told_ you what I want.' said Kim.

Grimm stood silent, chewing on his lip. 'All right...' he said, looking away. '_No head gaming_. I get it.'

'And _no evil_.' Kim said firmly.

'_All right_!' Grimm snarled. 'Fine. Until this is over, you and your little circle of friends are off limits. Happy?'

Kim narrowed her eyes, but put out her hand. '_Shake_ on it.' she said.

Grimm hesitated, but at last he sighed and took Kim's hand, gripping it firmly. 'I'm not making any promises about Maze.' he said. 'If you don't want him roughed up, you'll have to stop me. But if he sees you protecting him from me, that might be useful.'

Kim nodded and they unclasped their hands.

'For what it's worth,' Grimm said, and his voice sounded extremely uncomfortable. 'I _regret_ it if you took what I did in the backyard the wrong way.' Kim raised an eyebrow. Then she turned her head as another voice came from Grimm's hip pouch.

'Take your bows, Lady K.' said Jade. 'That's as close as he's ever gotten to saying he's sorry.'

Coming Soon:

_The name implies separate pieces - but denotes unity._

_What are they?_

_Author: There were a number of people who thought Grimm was actually TOO villainous in the previous chapter. Hopefully this helped bring understanding to the fact that Grimm was displaying something that is both one of his strengths and his weaknesses - an ability to look into other people's minds to hurt them, but a great inability to understand how to help them. _

_Sorry if readers felt that Kim was overshadowed and diminished by Grimm in the other chapter - that wasn't the intention. I simply felt that the team up wouldn't go smooth when initially proposed, and that both Kim and Grimm needed an outlet for the bad blood between them. Things are always darkest just before the dawn..._

_P.S.: After the previous chapter, I actually got a phone call from a reader saying how much he enjoyed it - something that's never happened before. I was flattered, but also slightly amazed that someone felt moved to phone in (quite a feat as I don't think I've posted my phone number anywhere). My cell phone battery was almost empty, so I couldn't talk long, but it made my day and thanks to the caller (forgot to ask if he was a reviewer so I could associate a callsign to the voice). Phone calls aren't necessary though - reviews posted here and deviantart etc. will be just fine ;)_


	14. Ch 13: Partners

A Friend In Darkness

All Things Probable 3

A Kim Possible Fanfiction

by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and its affiliates, etc. etc.

Chapter 13  
Partners

_Or: Middleton Daze_

Grimm sat in Ron's room, looking around. His eyes flicked over the football awards, the pictures of Rufus and Kim, and the other objects of Ron's life. He sighed and ran his hand over his forehead as if to say _How in the world did I wind up here?_

The events of the last few hours played out through his mind as if giving the answers to himself. After agreeing to Kim's terms of cease-fire, there had been other details to work out which were almost as thorny.

_'You are so not staying at my house!' Kim had said. And Mr. Dr. Possible had nodded with agreement._

_'No... boys!' he said firmly._

_'I thought we were chums now.' said Grimm, not without sarcasm. 'All that angst, and you still don't trust me?'_

_Mr. and Mrs. Drs. Possible and Kim's voice came back instantly in chorus. 'No!'_

_'Smart.' he said, though he only smirked a little. 'But it kind of defeats the purpose of me coming here in the first place. Now that we've hashed things out a little, my job is to stick to Kim like glue until she winds up facing off with Monkey Fist again. So if I'm not actually in the same house with Kim, I want to be somewhere nearby.'_

_'Are you expecting them to actually show up here?' Kim said._

_'They might.' said Grimm darkly. 'Funny thing about luck is you can't predict it. So just in case, I want to be close at hand.'_

_'Doorstep.' said Kim, growling. 'Or there's a nice corner next to that oil spot in the garage.'_

_'I've had worse.' said Grimm._

_Kim still looked defiant, but suddenly Mr. Dr. Possible got a cunning look on his face and pulled Kim and his wife aside until they were huddled and whispering in the doorway leading to one of the other rooms. After a few minutes, Mrs. Dr. Possible was on her cell phone making a call. She muttered and nodded, then hung up and gave a smiling nod to her husband and their daughter._

_Grimm watched uncomfortably as the trio marched over and confronted him again. 'You want to be close by?' Kim said, and Grimm nodded._

_'Someplace you can get here in a hurry if you need to?'_

_He nodded again._

_'We found a place - but you'll have to pitch in and help them around the house.'_

_Grimm felt his mouth going slightly dry. 'Where is it?' he said._

And about half an hour later, he found himself in conference with Mr. and Mrs. Stoppable at their house. Mr. Stoppable's sanguine, soothing voice seemed unperturbed as he listened. 'That sounds wonderful!' he said warmly. 'It never hurts to have an extra set of hands with little Hana running around!'

He hadn't said much as the Possibles and Stoppables made the arrangements and showed him to Ron's room. 'We run a clean house here.' said Mrs. Stoppable, standing by the door as Grimm stumped in with his bag. 'So pick up after yourself. I won't ask you to do chores, but while I'm taking care of things, you can make yourself useful by looking after Hana!'

Grimm nearly recoiled as Mrs. Stoppable pushed Hana into his arms. He dropped his bag in surprise, opening his mouth to protest, but Mrs. Stoppable had already turned and was heading downstairs. He stood there for several seconds in silence before sighing heavily and sitting down on the bed. Hana smiled and burbled her lips.

'Oh _cheese..._' said Grimm, shaking his head and putting Hana down on the mattress next to him.

'Cheese!' Hana chirped. 'Cheese! Cheese!'

Grimm stared at her. 'Money.' he said.

'Mah-nee! Mah-nee!' Hana chanted, clapping her hands.

Grimm smirked. 'Evil.' he said.

Hana stared at him for a few seconds. 'Brother!' she said at last.

Grimm winced as Hana laughed, bouncing up and down where she sat. He heard a four-note beep from his hip pouch and quickly took out his communicator.

'Yo, G-man.' Jade said. 'Settled into your new digs?' Jade raised an eyebrow at his withering glare. 'Look, are you _sure_ you want to let them saddle you with baby-sitting? We could get you a room at any one of the classy hotels in Middleton...'

'Ixnay.' Grimm muttered. 'If something happens, I need to be able to move _fast_.'

'The bike _is_ fast.' Jade said.

Grimm shrugged. 'Bike's in the garage, but I'd rather be close.'

'You da boss.' Jade said doubtfully.

'How am I on supplies?' Grimm said. 'Has the overnight kit got all the normal stuff?'

Jade nodded. 'When you told me about the plan, I also put in extra changes of clothes before you left - just in case it worked and you wound up having to stay in Middleton for the long haul. I've set up an expense account locally so you can use a debit card without letting anyone trace the money transfers back home - just in case you need to buy anything.'

'You rock out loud, Jade.' said Grimm, smiling. 'How about the cover story?'

'All set.' Jade answered. 'You'll be attending Middleton High under your own name, but as a temporary transfer student from Sudo Nim High School in Blacksburg Virginia. Maps and a bio of your 'home town' are already uploading to your communicator so you can study up on them. I even managed to squeak you into the same classes that Possible has while you're there. Don't skip out on your homework, now.' she ended mischievously.

Grimm smiled faintly. 'Jade, what would I do without you?'

'I shudder at the thought.' Jade said.

'Reading up will be good for a distraction while I baby-sit.' he said, punching buttons to begin the downloads. 'Did you include a list of movers and shakers at Middleton High?'

'You know it.' Jade answered. 'Should be in there with the rest of the info.'

For a moment Grimm stared at the streams of incoming data. He read, muttering, while Jade waited patiently. 'Tara... good-natured doormat... Jessica... non-descript sheep...' He kept reading, his face going into a deep scowl. 'Barkin? Felix? _Bonnie_? Jade, is this for real?'

Jade nodded. 'Fraid so. Freaky, isn't it?'

Grimm was shaking his head. 'This has got to be the _weirdest..._'

Jade looked at him suspiciously. 'What do you want all this for anyway?' she said.

Grimm shrugged. 'I don't want to follow her around and look stupid the whole time. Information is power.'

Jade's eyes narrowed. 'Grimm, don't use it to make trouble while you're there. You _promised_ to be good...'

'Don't worry, Jade.' Grimm answered, looking over the scrolling lists with a sly grin. 'I'll be good. In fact, before long... I'm gonna be Kim's greatest_ friend_.'

Jade clucked her tongue. 'Do I even want to know...?' she muttered. 'Well, enjoy your first night as one of Middleton's happy denizens. You're _sure_ you'll be all right in Stoppable's house?'

Grimm sniffed. 'After helping Rhonda out with Indy, I think I can handle pitching in with doofus-boy's little sister.'

'Uh huh.' said Jade, a gleam in her eyes. 'And... where _is_ the wee one?'

'She's...' Grimm stopped abruptly as his eyes fell on where Hana had been, only to see empty space on the bedspread. He heard a pattering above him, and glanced slowly up to see Hana dashing around in a tight circle on the ceiling.

'Oh _crud_.' he said quietly.

Kim took a short stroll around the neighborhood before going to bed and deliberately walked past Ron's house. She smiled as she heard a series of muffled thumps and shouts coming from Ron's room...

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_In the spirit world, Ron was 'sitting' in the Lotus position. Sitting was only an operative term, since there was nothing to actually sit on. But he had his legs drawn up Indian-style, and his arms were slightly outstretched with his fingers cupped._

_Rhonda was next to him, struggling to tuck her ankles into the crooks of her knees as Ron had done. With a yelp, her legs sprang straight and she tumbled in mid-air, hanging upside down. Ron glanced aside as she flailed around, trying to right herself._

_'You're trying too hard.' he said. 'Let the Ron-ness just... come to you!'_

_Rhonda sat down again, her cheeks flushed red. 'Easy for you to say!' she fussed. 'I don't do stuff like this much! Legs... too... stiff!' Finally with a squealing grunt she managed to fold herself into an identical pose as Ron. She gritted her teeth. 'Ugh... I'm gonna be feelin' this for a while...' she said. 'So what does sitting like Nanook of the North have to do with good vibes?'_

_'I donno.' Ron said. 'But it looks official!'_

_Rhonda buried her face in her hands with a grating moan of frustration._

_'Look, they made me do it at Yamanouchi all the time.' said Ron. 'Something about clearing the mind and inner peace. I don't know why, but it helps.'_

_Rhonda sighed, looked at him, and then tried to match his arm poses. 'OK, now what?' she said._

_'Just clear your mind.'_

_Rhonda was quiet for a few minutes. 'I can't stop thinking about the Sta-Puft Marshmallow Man...' she said, shaking her head._

_'Clear... your mind...' Ron said again, sounding half asleep._

_'How?' said Rhonda angrily._

_'Be like a hollow reed...' Ron crooned, lolling his head in a small circle on his neck like a yoga instructor, '...let your thoughts and your troubles flow through you the wind...'_

_Rhonda sighed and began imitating his movements. 'I am a Halloween...' she chanted. 'The wind blows through me... I am a Halloween...'_

_'Hollow REED...' Ron said, wanting to chuckle, but actually getting into the yoga postures._

_'Hollow reed...' Rhonda said quickly. 'I'm a hollow reed...'_

_For several more minutes they said nothing. Finally Ron spoke again. 'Have you achieved reed-ness...?' he said, his voice totally relaxed._

_'I... think so.' said Rhonda, also sounding relaxed. 'What now?'_

_'Well, honesty is usually a sure way to get good vibes flowing.' said Ron. 'Try being honest about something.'_

_'Like what?' said Rhonda._

_'I don't know - just... say what you're feeling right now.'_

_Rhonda paused, then spoke. 'This is stupid...' she said. 'What a total load of... OW!' she flinched, clenching her fists, her face suddenly tensed in pain._

_'Twinged a bit?' said Ron, who looked so relaxed that he sounded sleepy. 'Must have been too negative, try being honest about something else.'_

_Rhonda slowly relaxed, breathing faster. _

_'If it'll help, I'll get the ball rolling.' said Ron. 'I'm Jewish, and I have a real tough time with some of the dietary stuff. I know pig products aren't kosher, but I really love the smell of bacon.'_

_Rhonda sighed. 'Isn't this like... truth or dare?' she said._

_'Roll with it.' said Ron. 'Your turn.'_

_Rhonda was biting her lip. 'I...' she paused, looking like she was gathering courage. 'I... like Jar-Jar Binks.'_

_Ron's eyes flew open. 'What?' he said._

_Rhonda was blushing furiously and looking fixedly at her knees. 'I know!' she said. 'I know everyone else thinks he ruined the franchise, and they all say he's a joke that isn't funny, but.. I thought he was hilarious.'_

_'Woah.' said Ron. 'That... I mean... my confession seems pretty lame by comparison.'_

_But Rhonda was still talking as if he weren't there. 'I mean, what's not to like?' she said, and then started waving her hands around and doing a squeaky voice. 'Meesha meesha meesha! Meesha Jar-Jar Binks!' she chuckled. 'And I'm pretty sure most people are just bashing him because everyone else is...' she suddenly stopped, her eyes wide and looking excited. 'Hey...' she said. 'I think it's working! It doesn't sting so much anymore!'_

_'Badical!' said Ron. 'My turn. Um... Oh yeah, for our half-a-versary, Kim got me a titanium mesh belt that doesn't break because my pants keep falling down.'_

_Rhonda looked like she was stifling a laugh, covering her mouth and pinching her nose. 'Why do your pants keep falling down?' she said. 'You're not an exhibitionist are you?'_

_'No!' said Ron, blushing in his own turn. 'I don't know why it happens, I always check the snaps and stuff, it just happens!'_

_Rhonda stared at him. 'No pain, I guess that means it's the truth.' she said. 'What's a half-a-versary?'_

_'Oh.' said Ron, looking uncomfortable. 'Kim made it up. It was six months after we started dating. You know - half a year - half-a-versary...'_

_'Oh.' said Rhonda. 'So... what did you get her?'_

_Ron froze. 'Uh... Oh man, I didn't get her anything!' he said, as if he had just realized it for the first time. He flinched as Rhonda's fist punched him in the shoulder. 'Ow! What was that for?' He looked at her in surprise, for her expression seemed genuinely angry._

_'If you're anything like me, you'd been pretty much dateless until you started shipping with her!' Rhonda said, 'Waiting your whole life for someone you really like - then you get your wish - and you didn't even get her a half-a-versary gift?'_

_Ron fended her off as she kept trying to punch him. 'Hey - ow! Knock it off! She didn't even tell me about it until the day she gave me the gift! And there's no such thing as a half-a-versary, how was I supposed to know?'_

_'You shouldn't have needed a half-a-versary!' Rhonda said. 'If it was me, I'd have been getting her stuff every week! Grimm's always giving me flowers and earrings and cards...'_

_'He does?' said Ron, surprised. 'I thought villains just stole things from other people, they don't give presents.'_

_'Stupid... dork... doofus!' Rhonda said, turning away from him. 'Finding that special someone is the greatest thing in the world - how could you not appreciate it...?'_

_'I did!' said Ron defensively. 'Well, maybe not at first - after she gave me the belt, we went on a mission where she got hit by some kind of memory device. It wiped her mind clean and she forgot all about me.' he said. 'I spent days afterwards trying to bring her memories back.' Ron stopped and pondered. When Kim's memories had been gone, he recalled the almost disdainful look in her eyes when he'd told her they were dating. And then on the train, her look of sheer joy when she remembered her feelings for him._

_'And then you still didn't get her anything?' Rhonda said._

_Ron sputtered for a second, wild excuses forming in his mind, but he slumped his shoulders and fell silent. 'I guess the truth is... I just didn't think about it.' he said. 'I was stupid.'_

_'Well...' said Rhonda, looking on the verge of tears, '...when you get back you darn well better get her something nice!'_

_'What's it to you anyway?' said Ron. 'I thought you didn't like us!'_

_'I don't!' said Rhonda defiantly. 'But... well, stuff like that is important, that's all!' _

_Ron felt foolish. Here he was, trying to instruct a villain in the art of good vibrations, and she had wound up lecturing him on how to show appreciation to a girlfriend. 'All right... deal.' he said sheepishly. 'I'll make it up to her somehow.'_

_There was silence for some time. 'Ok my turn...' Rhonda said at last. 'My middle name is...' she stopped again, shaking her head. '...Advoratrelundar.'_

_Ron stared for a moment. 'Rhonda Advoratrelundar Fatigable?' he said._

_Rhonda covered her eyes. 'My dad was really into Dr. Who...' she said. 'He thought it was pretty.'_

_Ron looked away. 'It... kinda is.' he said quietly._

_Rhonda sniffed. 'Thanks...' she whispered._

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Kim came downstairs for breakfast only to find Grimm leaning against the wall leading into the kitchen. He had a tired look in his eyes as he glowered at her. 'Morning, Probable.' she said. 'Sleep well?'

Grimm's eyes narrowed. 'Cute.' he said. 'Really _cute_. What took you so long anyway? You get ready for your day like you fight - slow and too much needless panache.'

Kim glared back at him. It occurred to her that she had never seen Grimm wearing anything but his mission clothes. Dressed in school attire he seemed to have shed some of his mercenary mystique. She also thought resentfully that he wore them well. 'What happened to your promise?' she said.

'That wasn't head gaming, that was an observation.' he answered.

Kim shook her head. 'If this is going to work, you need to stop acting like every waking moment is part of a game.'

'All of life's a game, Possible.' he answered. 'Players play to win.'

Breakfast was almost silent except for the clinking of utensils on plates. Every eye was fixed on Grimm while they ate, glinting with either disapproval or hostility. Finally as if trying to break the tension, Mrs. Dr. Possible spoke. 'Are you sure you don't want anything?' she said, glancing to the other side of the kitchen, where Grimm was sitting on a stool.

'I already ate.' he said flatly. 'I'm just here in case Monkey Fist shows up.' Grimm seemed to be staring at the handle on one of the cupboard drawers as if he were trying to memorize it's features, but Kim felt almost as uncomfortable than she would have if he had been looking at her. _'Uy Ron, I hope you appreciate this...' _she thought, sopping up the syrup from her plate with the last forkful of her pancake. Then another voice broke the silence.

'Is it true _you_ were the one behind the Transducer thing that really ticked Kim off?'

Kim gagged, looking furiously over at Tim. 'Shut _up_, tweeb!' she growled.

'That was all Zorpox.' Grimm said, without moving his gaze from the cabinet. But a shadow of his old smirk crept onto his lips. 'Sorry to disappoint you. Who knows where super-villains like him get their ideas?'

Kim slammed her fork down with a clang. 'OK, _that_ was head gaming!' she said angrily.

'Withdrawn.' Grimm said quickly. 'Old habits are like car batteries, they die hard.'

He only got out of the way when they started clearing up. As Kim cleaned her dishes, she felt Grimm's eyes boring into the back of her neck like lasers. 'Stop _doing_ that!' she said. 'Why can't you just tail me from a distance?'

'Tried that. Didn't work.' said Grimm. 'Until I get my shot at Maze, I'm not leaving. Get used to it.'

He watched in stone-like silence as Kim went through her morning routine of getting her stuff ready, kissing her parents good-bye as they prepared for work, and making sure Rufus was set up with everything he needed in her hip pouch. His bike was nowhere to be seen when she went out to the garage and opened the door to get into the Sloth. Grimm followed her and was moving towards the passenger side door.

'Uh uh.' said Kim. '_Back_ seat.'

Grimm paused, then shrugged. 'Fine.' he said. 'I'd hate for anyone to think we had a _thing_ going on.'

The ride over to school was as uncomfortably silent as breakfast had been. Grimm kept staring out the window as if determined to avoid Kim's eyes, while Kim did her best to ignore him. She never listened to the radio much in cars, but the tension was so thick she tried it anyway. What sounded like an old lounge song was playing and jazzy lyrics floated through the car.

_Like the wallpaper sticks to the wall  
Like the seashore clings to the sea  
Like you'll never get rid of your shadow  
You'll never get rid of me..._

Kim shut off the radio in disgust, thinking ruefully that sometimes her life felt as if someone was setting things like that up just to be ironic. She was soon parking the Sloth in the school lot. They were a bit early, but there was still a crowd of students streaming into the building, chatting on the sidewalks and still more were arriving. The marquee on the sign outside the school had a jumble of letters on it that read, _"Middleton High Welcomes All Visitors"._ Both Kim and Grimm got out and shouldered their book bags, and Grimm put on a pair of sunglasses.

'What's with the shades?' Kim said.

'Still bruised around the eye from the other day.' said Grimm.

'They won't let you wear them during class.' Kim said. 'How are you going to explain the shiner?'

'I'll tell them the truth.' Grimm said. 'That I got beat up by Kim Possible. I hear I'm in good company.'

Kim saw Monique approaching on the sidewalk surrounding the lot. 'Wait here.' she said.

'Why?' said Grimm, sounding suspicious.

'Because I'm hooking up with a friend and I don't want you scaring anyone with your MIB imitation!' Kim snapped.

Grimm shook his head and leaned against the Sloth as Kim walked towards Monique. 'Yo girlfriend - how are you holding up?' she said.

'Not bad I guess.' Kim sighed. 'But I'm glad you're here. I can tell this is gonna be a _long_ day.'

Monique nodded, lowering her voice a bit. 'So you haven't changed your mind?' she said. 'You're sure you still want me as your pinch-hitter?'

'Definitely.' Kim said firmly.

Monique looked as if she had been hoping Kim would say _no_, but nodded again and sighed. 'I thought you said you and Mr. Bad Boy did some kind of truce?'

'We did.' said Kim. 'But it'll be a _long_ time before I actually believe he's on the level. In the meantime, I'm expecting weirdness. He keeps saying he's going to be right behind me until we find Monkey Fist again. If Grimm's got my back, I want someone there to make sure he's not looking for a good place to stick a knife.'

Monique peered around Kim's shoulder. Grimm was still leaning against the Sloth, looking over the school as if appraising it in some way while Rueful's head popped out of the top of his book bag to peer around. 'So that's him?' said Monique.

'Yeah.' said Kim.

'And he's a _bad boy_?'

'Yeah.' said Kim again.

'Mmmm...' said Monique, looking him over. 'He is bad-boy _hawt_...'

'What?' said Kim, blinking.

Monique looked back at Kim. 'I said he's kinda hot.' she said.

'You didn't say hot - you said _hawt.'_

Monique looked surprised. 'N... no I didn't.' she said, looking suddenly flustered.

Kim sighed. 'Monique - please promise you won't start crushing on Grimm. It would just be too _weird_.'

Monique shook her head, looking at him again. 'How come the good ones are always _evil_?' she said.

Kim smiled faintly. 'Come on, let's get this over with.' she said.

Grimm looked up as Kim and Monique approached. 'So am I allowed to approach you yet, your worshipfulness?' he drawled.

Kim ignored the crack, and gestured to Monique. 'Grimm, this is Monique. Monique - Grimm. She's my _official_ sidekick until we find Ron.'

Monique smiled playfully. 'So I guess that makes you the _sub_-sidekick.' she said.

Grimm's eyes narrowed, but he said nothing. 'She'll be coming with us when we go out in the field, so get acquainted.' Kim said.

'I already did that.' Grimm broke in. 'Assistant Manager at Club Banana, amateur fashion designer and creator of a mildly popular local slang phenom called 'Monique-speak'. Last name is...'

'Hey!' Monique said, her voice rising almost to a shout. 'We never met before today, where'd you get all that from?'

'Research.' he answered cagily. 'The info wasn't hidden in any _difficult_ way.'

'_A-hem_.' Kim said, glaring.

Grimm sighed, rolling his eyes. 'Fine - Kim, Monique, me. All one big, happy team. Got it.'

'Looks like you got him pretty well trained.' said Monique slyly, and Grimm looked away with a frustrated growl. 'Does he do windows?'

Rueful's eyes glittered and he growled at Monique from his perch on Grimm's shoulder, but at a look from Grimm, he scampered back into the bookbag. They made their way to the school, with Monique and Kim side by side with Grimm trailing behind. She and Monique chatted, though Monique kept making occasional asides about Grimm as they walked.

'He's not as beefy as Hirotaka was.' she said. 'You _sure_ he'll be all right on a mission?'

'He'll be fine.' said Kim with a cool voice, though she was smiling at the look of discomfiture on Grimm's face as he followed in their wake.

'I thought you said he was bad road.' she said when they stopped at Kim's locker. 'How bad could he be if he got beat up by a girl?' Monique said with a coy smile.

Grimm opened his mouth as if he were about to say something, but then he stopped, looking back and forth between Monique and Kim. 'Oh, now I get it.' he said, his smirk returning. 'Bring in your friend to keep me distracted. Nice, Possible. Anyone would get the impression you didn't _like_ me.'

Kim's smile faltered. Grimm had an uncanny knack for seeing through diversions and tricks. Partly, she reasoned, because he'd used them himself so many times. 'Can you _blame_ me?' she said pointedly.

'No skin off my teeth if you feel too scared to have me around without backup.' he said, adjusting his sunglasses.

'This from the guy who wanted his _hacker_ out here to keep him company.' she said.

Grimm sniffed and nodded. 'Fine, you win this round. I guess you could use a victory after the last couple of weeks.'

Kim was about to answer when she heard something behind her that annoyed her almost as much. 'How are things in the _loser_ section of the halls?'

Kim winced, gritting her teeth. It was inevitable - with Grimm in the same school as her, that this meeting would take place. Bonnie rounded the corner, looking at Kim and Monique with the expression of veiled disdain she reserved specially for them. 'Hello _Bonnie_.' said Kim and Monique at the same time.

But Bonnie spotted Grimm and her normal flurry of snarky comments seemed to evaporate. 'Uh...' she said, sounding uncharacteristically flustered, 'Aren't you going to introduce me to the new guy?'

Grimm looked at her, his eyebrow raised again. 'I know who _you_ are.' he said flatly. 'Bonnie Rockwaller. Now tell me why I should _care_?'

Kim sighed. She gestured vaguely. 'Bonnie - this is Grimm. Grimm Probable.'

Bonnie's mouth hung down, giving her a vacant, stunned expression. 'Haaaaa...' she said tonelessly.

Grimm sniffed. 'So this is that famous Rockwaller wit I've heard so much about.' he said. But any further comment was stifled at Bonnie sidled up to him until she was practically in his face.

'Grimm _Probable_.' she said, her voice squeaking girlishly. 'That rolls of the tongue so smooth! Where have you been hiding yourself?'

'That's what I'd like to know.' Kim muttered.

But Grimm's attention seemed totally thrown as he backed up and Bonnie advanced until he was against the lockers. 'Temporary transfer.' he said, but seemed unable to articulate anything else.

'Aw...' Bonnie purred, putting her hand on his shoulder and tracing a finger across his chest. 'Well maybe you'll see some things here that'll make you want to turn your stay more... _permanent_.'

Kim couldn't see past his sunglasses, but the rest of Grimm's face was a study in either disgust or discomfort, she couldn't tell which. 'I... have to check on some things.' he said, sidestepping until he was outside Bonnie's reach. He glanced towards Kim. 'I'll be at your first class in a few.' Then he turned and walked away without another word.

Kim was surprised, at Grimm because he actually seemed _scared_, and at herself for being grateful that Bonnie had showed up. Bonnie stared after him for a few seconds as if spellbound, then fell back against the lockers. 'Woah.' she said, fanning her neck with her hand. '_Major_ steam!'

'What are you _talking _about girl?' said Monique. 'I don't know if you picked up on it, but he's not even interested!'

'I _know_.' said Bonnie. 'He acts like he doesn't even _need_ to go out with anyone! That is _so_ cool!' She looked at Kim and Monique appraisingly. 'Neither of you are into him, right?'

'_No_.' they both said quickly.

'Then pardon me _losers_, while I see if our transfer student needs any help finding his classes...' And Bonnie darted down the hallway after him.

Monique stared after them for a few seconds. 'That is just _sick_ and wrong on so many levels.' she said.

'Why?' said Kim. 'It's totally like Bonnie to laser in on anyone remotely cute. And it's not like she and Junior are going steady yet.'

'No, I mean the fact that she likes _Grimm_ at all.' said Monique.

'Why shouldn't she?' Kim growled. 'He's manipulative, he's a player, he's a jerk... It's a match made in... the _other_ place.'

'He's _your_ mercenary opposite!' Monique said, staring at Kim. 'That means if she's got a thing for _him_, then deep down she might have a thing for...'

Kim flinched. 'Ew!' she said loudly, feeling her skin crawling. 'Monique, don't even _think_ that! I mean... _eeeeew!!'_

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Grimm darted into the janitor closet, closing the door softly behind him. He flattened against the wall, keeping an eye angled through the small window at the top of the door. He saw Bonnie's head flash past the glass, waited a moment then breathed a sigh of relief. After waiting a few more seconds, he tried turning the knob to go back out. He glared as the knob clicked, but did not twist. He tried turning it a few more times, but it was locked.

He gritted his teeth, shook his head, then fished the communicator from his pack. 'Jade - tell me there's a lock pick set somewhere in the bags you prepped.' he said.

Jade's face popped up on the screen. 'Uh, yeah.' she said. 'They're velcroed under the flap of the second lower side pocket.' She watched as Grimm fished out a tiny instrument from the pack and knelt in front of the door. 'And _why_ do you need a lock pick within ten minutes of entering Middleton High?'

'Stupid _crazy_ school.' Grimm muttered, angling the lock pick into the keyhole on the doorknob. 'What kind of idiot designs a building with a janitor closet that locks from the _inside_?'

Jade laughed. 'Another question - why would a student want to venture _into_ the janitor's closet?'

'Don't ask.' Grimm muttered.

'That just makes me _want_ to ask...' Jade smiled.

Grimm glowered. The lock wasn't turning, and he tried a different angle to get a feel for the tumblers. He'd broken into secret labs with easier locks than this one. 'I was... hiding.' he said sheepishly.

'From who?' You haven't even been there half an hour yet - have you already got enemies?'

'No! It was... Bonnie.' he said, and he bit his lip.

Jade was staring. 'Grimm are you _blushing_? What happened?'

Grimm hesitated, still fiddling with the lock. 'She... _came on_ to me.' he said. There was a sudden squeal of laughter from the communicator. Grimm looked away from the lock to stare angrily at the screen and Jade quickly stopped.

'Sorry.' she said, stifling another laugh behind her hand. 'What kind of come-on?' she said.

'Roaring.' Grimm muttered.

'Grimm half the girls at school have got an eye on you, and you've never hid in a closet before.' Jade said, still smiling. 'What makes this one different?'

Grimm's mouth pulled into a grimace. 'Because if Bonnie has a thing for me right off the bat, then it means... you know... _he_ might...'

'Ew!' Jade said, suddenly waving her hands as if she were swatting away invisible mosquitoes. 'Grimm - I mean... _eewwwwwww_!!'

'Hence, the blushing.' Grimm said.

Jade shivered. 'Well - I advise finding a way to deal with it that doesn't involve closets.' she said. 'Who knows how long you'll be there?'

Grimm nodded. 'This is gonna be tougher than I thought.' Finally, the lock gave a loud _click_ and stowing the lock pick, Grimm stepped back into the hall and headed for Kim's first class.

He caught up with Kim a few yards down the hall and fell in step behind her. She looked over her shoulder angrily. 'Stop doing that!' Kim said in a hissing whisper.

'Doing _what_?' said Grimm.

'Following me so _close_!' Kim said. 'You look like a secret service bodyguard or something!'

'I kind of am.' he answered.

'Well try to look a little less _mercenary-ey_!'

'How?' Grimm said, his face twitching briefly with exasperation.

'I don't know - follow 'casually' or something!' Grimm breathed a frustrated sigh as he followed Kim into the classroom. He started to sit right behind Kim but she glared at him and motioned further back. Grimm sighed again and sat two desks away from her.

Kim blinked as class started, for Mr. Barkin entered and was sitting behind the teacher's desk. 'Good morning students.' he said in his normal half-bellow. 'Mrs. O'Whiggens, your normal History teacher, was throwing out the trash when she threw out her back as well. I will be filling in until she recovers.'

He called roll, glaring at Kim for an extra second after calling her name, then saw Grimm seated two rows behind her. 'Sunglasses _off_ mister.' he said loudly, and Grimm complied. Barkin took in the bruising around the eye, but said nothing until he looked over his attendance list. 'You must be... Grimm Probable - our temporary transfer.' he said, flipping through his pages.

'Yes _sir_, Mr. Barkin.' Grimm answered, his voice taking on a military style crispness.

Barkin looked at him warily. 'Well - welcome aboard Mr. Probable.' he said. 'Hopefully you won't be using the time away from your normal school to slack off while you're here.'

'No _sir_.' Grimm answered.

Kim glanced back at him, her eyes narrowing. She couldn't tell if he was trying to make fun of Barkin or not with his GI Joe style answers. But the lessons went normally for an hour until the bell rang.

The other students were filing out and Kim was collecting her things and getting ready to leave, when she heard Barkin's voice crack over her like a whip. 'Probable!' he said, 'A word if you please.'

Kim thought about bailing on Grimm, then decided she would rather stick around to see if Barkin was assigning him extra homework. She expected Grimm to slouch over, looking surly or to be smirking insolently, and was surprised to see him march up to Barkin and give him a salute. 'How may I help you, _sir_?' he said.

Barkin glanced towards Kim. 'I didn't ask _you_ to stay, Possible.' he said.

'It's all right, _sir_.' Grimm said. 'I am assisting Kim Possible in her search for the missing Ron Stoppable - _sir_.'

'Is that so?' said Mr. Barkin, his attention fixing back onto Grimm. 'Then you should also know I don't tolerate smart alecs or trouble-makers in this school, Mr. Probable.'

'I would never presume to make trouble in a school overseen by Lieutenant Stephen Barkin, _sir_!' said Grimm.

Mr. Barkin looked surprised, but still wary. 'How exactly do you know me, mister?' he said, glowering.

'Everyone knows the name Barkin sir - you're a legend in the Marine Corps! You helped save the world...'

'Shhh!' Barkin hissed. 'That's classified information, Probable!'

'Yes _sir_!'

Mr. Barkin looked at him more keenly. 'You seem well informed.'

'Information is power - _sir_!'

'_Dangerously_ well informed.' he said, still looking suspicious. 'I've dealt with suck-ups before, Probable. You think that buttering me up will get you in my good books?'

'No _sir_!' said Grimm, his straight expression never wavering. 'The Barkin I've heard of would never fall for such a cheap ruse, _sir_!'

Barkin regarded him for a moment. 'How'd you get the shiner, soldier?' he said.

Grimm paused for a splintered second before answering. 'I questioned Kim Possible's abilities - _sir_.' he said.

Barkin actually smiled. 'Not exactly a smart way to begin your stay here, Probable.'

'I hope to increase said intelligence while attending this educational bulwark - _sir_.'

Barkin seemed to relax slightly. 'Carry on, then.' he said.

Grimm saluted again, then turned and stood next to Kim, as if waiting for her to move first. Kim had watched the whole exchange with conflicting emotions, but she left the classroom and waited until they were in the bustle of the hallway. 'What was _that_ all about?' she said, growling and not even bothering to look behind her as she walked.

'What do you mean?' said Grimm, wearily.

'That whole 'sir-de-sir-sir' routine.' Kim said.

'I'm just showing an authority figure the proper respect.' Grimm answered.

'Like _fun_ you are.' Kim said, her voice lowering. 'Barkin doesn't know you like I do - so don't use that fake respect angle to try and pull off any funny business!'

Kim was walking faster and faster in her anger, and Grimm jogged to keep up with her. 'You made me promise to be good, I try to comply, and all you do is complain.' Grimm said, 'Would you be _happier_ if I tried messing with him?'

'I'd be happier if you just kept your mouth shut while you're here and didn't _do_ anything. Especially _that_!' she said, stopping and pointing at him.

'_What_?' said Grimm.

'The eyebrow!' she said. 'You keep raising it every time you _look_ at anything. What's the deal?'

Grimm shook his head. 'Nothing.' he said quietly.

By the end of the next class, Kim was heartily sick of having Grimm tailing her. She couldn't shake the impression that despite his promise, he was secretly observing her and appraising her, trying to learn more about her techniques and her doings to use as weapons against her in their next encounter. She felt somehow pressured to try and make the day something special or extraordinary to impress or intimidate him.

But the lessons were the normal, standard stuff. Grimm seemed to be taking notes and studying the same as everyone else, and even answered a couple of questions when called on. She met up with Monique again for their algebra class, but instead of Ms. Merical, Kim saw Barkin sitting behind the teacher's desk. She sighed and braced herself for something weird and was not disappointed.

'Good morning class.' said Mr. Barkin. 'Ms. Merical is recovering from a bizarre accident involving paper cuts and lemon juice, so I will be your temporary algebra teacher today.'

Monique groaned. 'Barkined _again_.' she whispered, and Kim nodded.

Two seats behind Kim, she heard Grimm whisper. 'What - does this happen _often_?'

'Like every _day_.' Monique said.

Grimm said nothing more, but a few seconds later, Kim heard the telltale beeping of an electronic device. She turned, looking around the person sitting behind her, and saw Grimm putting his communicator away. She also saw the door leading into the classroom open a crack, and a swish of brown fur as Rueful's tail whipped out of sight.

She almost jumped out of her desk to confront Grimm, but he didn't seem to be doing anything else. His attention was focused on the equations Mr. Barkin was writing on the blackboard. And the rest of the lesson proceeded with it's usual numerical torpor.

When the bell rang, Kim pulled Monique aside. 'Mon, you were in a better position for watching Grimm - what did he do during the class?'

'He... took notes.' said Monique, looking confused. 'That ferret he's carrying around zipped out of the class early on, but it came back about half-way through.'

Kim felt her face going red. She looked around, but Grimm wasn't there. She stormed out into the hallway with Monique in tow, whirling around and looking. She spotted Grimm leaning against the opposite wall, talking into his communicator. As she went up to him, she heard his voice and Jade's.

'Are you _sure_ about this?' Grimm was saying.

'Looks like it.' Jade answered. 'Annoying, but harmless.'

Grimm chuckled. 'Confirm it if you can. It could be useful...' Then he looked up into Kim's angry face. 'Gotta go.' he said, then flipped his communicator shut and slid it into his bookbag. 'All right, what are you mad at _now_?' he said.

'Where did you send your weasel during Algebra?' she said.

'He's not _my_ weasel, he's Rhonda's.' Grimm said. 'I'm just looking after him...'

'Don't change the subject!' Kim said. 'What are you up to?'

'Nothing sinister.' said Grimm, his face taking on the aggrieved expression of an innocent man wrongly accused. 'In fact, it's something that may make your life easier.'

'You - make my life easier? That's a laugh for a start.' Kim growled.

'Whatever.' Grimm said. 'We hitting your next class or what?'

'I want to know what you're up to!' Kim said loudly.

'_Nothing_.' said Grimm defiantly. 'I'm just gathering information. It may help you and it may not, I don't know yet. But it's got nothing to do with the Ron sitch.' He started moving down the hall. 'You coming?' he said pointedly.

Kim gritted her teeth and pushed her way past him.

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Drakken was being pulled along by a strong hand. A blindfold of thick gauze was wound twice around his eyes. The air around him felt chilly, and his footsteps echoed as if he were in some kind of cavern, but beyond that he could tell nothing about his surroundings.

He stumbled on what felt like a loose rock and nearly fell to his knees. But the hand leading him was still pulling and actually dragged him a few inches before he scrambled and regained his footing.

'Slow _down_!' he grated. 'Some of us are blindfolded you know!' But soon he felt a hand pushing against his chest and he came to a stop. For a few seconds, there was nothing. 'Well?' he said. 'Are we at the secret clubhouse yet?'

He felt the gauze being pulled from his eyes and he blinked. Shego was standing silently next to him, her stone body rigid but attentive. He looked around and saw crates, parts and equipment, all surrounded by pitch blackness that was broken only by a few bright lights high above. He looked around a vast underground cave with a rough stone floor. He heard tapping and hammering far back in the depths of the cavern beyond his sight, like masons working.

In another section of the cavern, he saw a large machine connected to several banks of computers, with cables spreading out around it. His eyes lingered on the machine, for it was something his abilities and experience at least understood - far better than the unsettling and mysterious cave in which he stood.

'Impressive, don't you think?' came a smooth voice. Drakken turned and saw Monkey Fist approaching, followed by Maze. 'It's not the HenchCo time-share, but lately I'm into function rather than form.'

Drakken approached the machine, but paused as he drew level with Monkey Fist. 'Go on, take a closer look.' said Monkey Fist. 'It's this machine we would like you to acquaint yourself with. Your technical skills are what will earn you the reward we promised.'

Drakken blinked and walked up to the machine, inspecting the wiring, the computers and the support structure. 'You say you want a bigger version of this?' he said at last.

'Yes.' said Monkey Fist. 'And... feel free to suggest any improvements to its overall design and function that come to your mind.'

'That won't take long!' said Drakken, tugging at a tangled bunch of wires. 'Honestly, I'm surprised this thing could even boot up - it looks like it was thrown together by a monkey or something!'

From off to the side, the flicker of a smile sped across Maze's lips, but for several seconds there was heavy silence. 'I'll pretend I didn't hear that.' Monkey Fist said at last.

'Sorry.' said Drakken sheepishly. Then he resumed his inspection of the machine, eventually moving to the table where the connected components were clustered. 'Hmm...' he said, taking out his magnification goggles and donning them. 'An Oscillation Overthruster! Always wanted one of those... Waveform Harmonicizer... CMC Transmat... Universal Decryption Matrix...' He looked up, sliding off the goggles and staring at Monkey Fist. 'These are the primary components for...'

'Professor Dementor's Ultra-Atmospheric Jammer.' said Monkey Fist. 'Quite right.'

Drakken twined his fingers together, grinning wickedly. 'O-_ho_! So _that's_ your game, is it?' he said. 'Possible destroyed Dementor's Jammer some time ago - now that the heat's off, you're trying to quietly finish the work that he started!'

Monkey Fist smirked. 'Something like that.' he said.

Drakken was circling the table and inspecting the readouts on the computer monitors. 'Well I was never one to shy away from ripping off someone else's work.' he said. 'Very clever...'

Monkey Fist and Maze stared at him as he continued looking over the devices with renewed interest. 'Well?' Monkey Fist said at last.

'I think I can help.' said Drakken smugly. 'I can certainly rewire this mish-mash to make sure it doesn't blow up the next time you try to use it. But this mini version isn't nearly powerful enough to disrupt the global satellite network. You'll need it to be much bigger.'

'Which I believe is the reason we _brought_ you here in the first place.' Monkey Fist drawled impatiently.

'Oh! Yes...' Drakken said. He was now looking around the cavern, and dashed over to where the boxes and crates were stacked. 'Not enough.' he said at last, returning to the table. 'We'll need more circuits, more metal, a stronger power source...'

'Can you compose a comprehensive list of what we will require?' said Monkey Fist.

'Certainly!' said Drakken, sounding insulted.

Monkey Fist was sliding the keyboard of one of the computers towards him. '_Compose_ it.' he said.

Drakken paused. 'We could just go back to my lair, I can retool a lot of my stuff and save some time...'

'No!'

Drakken peered around Monkey Fist to stare at Maze. 'The machines will be built _here_.' said the shadow shaman.

'I don't even know where _here_ is!' Drakken groused at him angrily. 'And who _are_ you anyway? You weren't at the last HenchCo convention!'

'That is not your concern.' said Maze darkly. 'You will build the machines here. The work must remain secret.'

'I'm afraid he is quite right.' said Monkey Fist. 'How many times has Kim Possible found and destroyed your lair...?'

'Only once!' Drakken shouted. But at a withering look from Monkey Fist, he seemed to deflate. 'Or twice...' he said. Monkey Fist continued glaring at him. '...this month.'

'The machines will be built _here_.' said Maze again. 'Where _Mi'kksiistsikomma_ cannot find them. And you must remain here until they are finished.'

Drakken was sputtering. 'That wasn't part of the deal!' he yelled. 'What about my equipment - my labs? My _cocoa-moo_?'

'Anything you need will be brought to you.' said Monkey Fist. 'So I suggest you begin by composing your list. The sooner the tasks are done, the sooner you will have your _cocoa-moo_.'

'But what about manpower?' Drakken said. 'I'll need my henchmen for the heavy lifting at least!'

'Manpower won't be an issue.' said Monkey Fist, and he snapped his fingers, the sound echoing through the air. The noise of stonework coming from the darkness of the inner cavern stopped at once and Drakken turned slowly as he heard a dull thumping of many heavy footsteps. From the gloom, a number of figures lumbered forward. They looked like normal people except they were made of stone. They stopped once they had formed a semi-circle around Monkey Fist and Maze, and waited.

'Well,' said Monkey Fist after several silent seconds. 'Shall we get to work?'

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A squelching mass flotched onto a tray in the cafeteria at Middleton High. Grimm looked at the grey, steaming pool. 'What _is_ this?' he said, looking up at the lunch lady.

'Mystery Meat.' the woman answered flatly, looking severe and intimidating as she always did with her scowling face and her hairnet. 'It's mysteriously delicious.'

Grimm regarded his tray for a moment. 'This could cause a stampede to beets.' he said.

'Glad you like it.' she said. _'Next!'_

Grimm moved towards an empty table, but paused as a clutch of girls seemed to zip in out of nowhere and fill every chair but one, looking at him expectantly. He raised his eyebrow, then turned and moved towards a vacant table. The girls seemed to pass by him in a flash and occupy that table as well, looking at him and waiting.

He sighed and looked over at Kim's table, where she sat with Monique. He made as if to move towards another empty table, waited until the girls started moving, then he quickly changed direction and darted to Kim's table, taking one of the empty seats. The girls stared at Kim and Monique with undisguised resentment.

Most of the members of the football team were seated at another table. Whether intentionally or not, they hung out nearly as much off the field as they did on. Their ringleader was Nick Tragg. Nick had eagerly stepped into the role of 'alpha male' which had been vacated by Brick the previous year. For the most part, they left Ron alone as long as he kept winning games. Though they were still sources of school wide mischief towards anyone they felt was an easy mark - including exchange students. They were all glaring at Grimm as he took his seat.

'Who _is_ that guy?' said one of the other jocks.

'Donno.' Nick muttered. 'He just showed up today, says he's a transfer student from some other school.'

Another spoke up. 'Well I don't like it - all the cute girls are flying around him like goths.'

'That's _moths_.' Nick growled. 'Jeez Cliff, this is a _school_ - try and sound a little less thick.'

Cliff shrank into silence, but another member of the squad piped in. 'And what's he doing at the same table with Possible? Is he moving in on Stoppable's turf?'

'Beats me.' Nick said. 'But if he's putting the moves on our running back's squeeze, that means he's wandering onto the _team's _turf.'

'So what do we do?' Cliff ventured. 'Sanctions?'

But Nick was looking at his cafeteria tray. 'Nah - I think it's time we showed the new guy that there's a _food chain_ at Middleton High, and when you're from out of town - you start at the _bottom_.'

Grimm looked resentful as he sat down. 'I can't believe I have to eat with _you_ guys just so your sheep classmates will back off.' Grimm muttered, ignoring the Mystery Meat and picking at the vegetables instead. 'Doesn't this school have any _other_ guys they could hassle?'

'Why are you bothering to eat?' said Monique, smiling. 'Sounds like you're already pretty full of yourself.'

Grimm looked coldly at her, but said nothing. He opened his bookbag and Rueful slithered out onto the table. The weasel took a look at the mystery meat and let out a high-pitched wheeze of disgust before turning to a small tub of feed that Grimm had fished out of his pack and set on the table.

Rufus was eating his food with the normal gusto, but both weasel and naked mole rat kept looking up from their food occasionally to glare at each other. Monique noted with some amusement that Kim and Grimm were doing pretty much the same thing.

'So... silence anyone?' Monique said after a few minutes. Neither Kim nor Grimm said anything. 'I'm having a great day, Monique.' said Monique, looking to her left. Then turning to her right she said, 'Me too, Monique!' Then she whipped her head back and forth as if holding conclave with herself.

'No problems?'

'Well, my BF's kind of quiet, but probably because her WE is here.'  
'WE?'  
'Worst Enemy.'  
'Oh - good one! You are so clever Monique!'  
'Thanks, Monique!'  
'So, any chance they'll lighten up?'  
'I donno, but if they get any more friendly they're gonna start throwing punches.'

Grimm looked steadily more impatient as she talked. Finally he broke in as Monique paused for a breath. 'With all this food, you think we could spend some time _eating_?' An instant later he lurched forward as a square of Jell-O splattered against the back of his head, sending lime green fragments everywhere. Kim and Monique shielded themselves from the worst of it with their arms.

'Eat _that_, new guy!' came a loud voice from a few tables down.

Kim looked towards the table where Nick was seated with other members of the football team. All of them were sneering and chuckling. There was a ripple of laughter through the cafeteria as Grimm used several napkins to mop off the worst of the jell-o bomb from his hair and neck. Rueful was on all fours, growling and hissing at Nick's table. A dangerous gleam was in Grimm's eyes.

'Don't even think about it!' Kim said. 'You're not the only one they've pasted.'

Grimm tasted some of the Jell-O that was still clinging to his fingers and the gleam vanished. 'Better than your Mystery Meat.' he said, muttering. 'Excuse me.' He stood up and Rueful leaped onto his arm, crawling up his shoulder and into the bookbag as Grimm hefted it. He left the cafeteria, heading towards the bathrooms, bowing as a few students applauded and whistled mockingly.

Kim's mood lightened considerably after Grimm left. 'I shouldn't have enjoyed that.' she said. 'It's immature jock-i-ness. But since it was Grimm...'

'Still, you gotta admit, he was pretty Zen about the whole thing.' said Monique. 'Could he have used kung-fu to mess them up?'

'Yeah.' said Kim suspiciously. 'I'll just put that in the hopper along with a bunch of other stuff I want him to explain.' she said quietly.

'Might not want to obsess over him _too_ much.' Monique said.

'_What_?' Kim said. 'I am _so_ not obsessing over Grimm!'

Monique bent forward and lowered her voice. 'Girl, you were _cutting_ your salad.' she said. 'That's obsessing. You brought me on to help you out with this guy. Part of that's guarding you from him.'

'And you're doing great.' Kim said. 'Your Moniqueness is definitely taking some of his edge off.'

'And _partly_,' Monique spoke over Kim, 'I think it'll also mean guarding _you_ from you.'

'Don't worry.' said Kim. 'Me and me just don't want him to get away with anything.'

'But it kind of looks like you're stalking him as much as he's tailing you.'

'_Stalking_?' Kim said.

'You're always wondering what he's up to.' Monique said.

'Because he's always _up_ to something!' Kim shot back.

'Doesn't look like it so far.' Monique said. 'Might want to dial it back unless he actually _tries_ something.' Kim blinked. 'Otherwise _some_ people might think you're obsessing.' Monique finished with a smile, and she waved at Bonnie, who was looking at Kim as if she were _made_ of Mystery Meat.

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With nearly everyone still in the cafeteria, the restroom was deserted. Grimm cleaned up as best he could and made sure his hair and shirt didn't have any gelatin sticking anywhere. _'I'll be lime-scented the rest of the day.'_ he thought resentfully. _'Now I remember why I never went in for football._' Rueful was hopping from sink to sink and looking at himself curiously in the wall mirror. Grimm was just smoothing his hair back in place when the communicator beeped and he fished it from his hip pouch.

'Yo G-man.' said Jade's voice. 'Might not want to turn on the communicator so fast in a men's room!'

'Relax Jade, we're alone.' Grimm said. 'What have you got?'

'Confirmation on the Barkin sitch.' Jade answered. 'I triple-checked the info I gathered when Rueful accessed Barkin's computer.' she paused. 'You gonna _use_ it?'

'Not yet.' Grimm said, shaking his head.

Jade looked surprised. 'You seem pretty laid back today.' she said. 'Normally you'd be all over this stuff. And I just took a peek on the school secur-i-cam. Care for some jell-o?'

'Your point?' said Grimm, looking vaguely annoyed.

'You said you wouldn't make trouble.' said Jade. 'When Possible played you, you turned the whole world upside-down to get back at her. What are you going to do to the food-fighters?'

'Right now, nothing.' said Grimm, but there was resentment in his voice.

'Very Zen.' said Jade. 'Or are you just biding your time to plot horrible, flaming vengeance?' Jade said.

Grimm shook his head again. 'The Possible paybacks were different. That was business. This was just immature jock-i-ness. If they were trying to beat me up - well, that would change things. Too bad they didn't follow me here to try and mix it up.' He smiled faintly at the communicator. 'This is just me doing my bit to find Rhonda.' he said. 'I'd let the whole cafeteria pelt me with Mystery Meat to bring her back.'

'Mystery Meat?' said Jade.

'Don't ask.' Grimm muttered. 'I'm taking the promise seriously.' he said. 'Everyone was hammering me for not knowing how to _help_. How am I doing now?'

'It's a start.' said Jade. Then she paused. 'There's one more thing.' she said. 'You know how the whatever-it-is Monkey Fist is using has been blocking our attempts to find them?'

'Yeah.' said Grimm.

'Well, I've been thinking.' she said quietly. 'It's possible they could also use it to monitor _our_ communications.'

There was silence as Grimm stared at the communicator. He remembered how false signals had led him to where he was ambushed by Monkey Fist in the UNIT labs. _Information is power,_ he thought to himself again. 'Possible's too?'

'Could be.' Jade said. 'I don't know if they've tried it yet - or if they've got wind that you and Lady K are hanging out. But after what they did to Rhonda and Ron, I think they'd be _real_ curious if they knew the BF and the GF were putting their heads together. I'd want an earful if it was me.'

Grimm sighed. 'I think it's almost time we told them everything Monkey Fist and Maze have gathered.'

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After lunch, the rest of the day had gone almost normally. Kim almost reached a point where she could forget Grimm was a few seats away from her in every class. Finally, the last bell had rung and she had gone at once to the gym to get ready for cheer practice.

Grimm had followed her right up to the entrance to the girl's locker rooms, where he stopped short. Kim raised her eyebrow at him, then he raised an eyebrow back, then he turned and stumped towards the bleachers.

It felt good to shake him, even if only for a few minutes, while she and the rest of the squad got ready. But he was still in the bleachers as they came out and began practice. He looked bored and impatient.

But as the squad went through several routines, Kim began to forget about him. The simple joy of doing something she enjoyed so much and did so well was enough to help her start shrugging off the day's troubles. Rufus was standing by her book bag on the sidelines, holding a small megaphone and imitating some of their moves.

_'Gooooo Mad Dogs!'_

Kim vaulted herself into the air, doing one of her trickier flips. An instant before landing in the cradle formed by the interlocked arms of the rest of the squad, she could see that one of Tara's arms wasn't fully in place.

There was a yelp and a crash as Kim landed and Tara overbalanced, pulling the entire squad down in a tangle. When everyone was finally standing again, Kim put her hand over her eyes impatiently. 'That's the third basket toss we've botched since we started!' she said, trying to keep the day's frustration out of her voice. 'Head in the game people!'

But she saw that nearly half the squad, while facing towards her, had their necks and eyes craned off to the side. Kim glanced to the far end of the gym where a lone figure was on the balance beam. Grimm leaned forward in a graceful roll, slowly going into a one-armed handstand. His body arched until he did a perfect step-out before going into a back spring.

'Wow...' said Tara. 'Who _is_ that guy?'

'Grimm.' said Bonnie. Then with a cold stare, she said, 'He's been following Kim around all day like a puppy dog.'

'I _like_ puppies.' said Marcella dreamily.

By now most of the squad was looking over to the balance beams where Grimm was going through several routines. 'Hello?' said Kim, tapping her foot. 'Practice isn't over yet!'

'Good balance - and he's _flexible_...' said Jessica, tilting her head as Grimm did some handsprings. 'That's a plus.'

'Baaa. _Baa-aaa-aaaah_.' Monique piped in from the bleachers. She was lounging uncomfortably on the wooden planks and looking surly. She had agreed to attend cheer practice, even though it wasn't her normal thing, so she could step in if Grimm tried anything.

'Guys?' Kim said, putting herself in the line of sight between Grimm and the squad. 'Could you try looking less desperate? Back to the routine, people!'

The squad muttered as they got back in line. 'This one's _tough_ Kim...' said Hope. 'It's not easy catching you from a near twenty foot drop.'

'Maybe we could try it with someone a little stronger in the base.' said Bonnie, her eyes riveted on Grimm. She started as Kim's pom fluffed against her head.

'Anytime this week, Bonnie.' Kim said.

Bonnie's eyes glinted and her face grew hard. 'You had him to yourself all day, Possible.' she said angrily. 'Does your BF know you've got other guys dangling on a string?'

The whole squad fell silent and Tara actually gasped. '_Bonnie_!' she whispered.

Everyone stared as Kim walked up to Bonnie, and even Bonnie looked nervous, as if she realized the barb was a little too sharp. But when Kim spoke her voice was calm and quiet. 'I'm not cheating on Ron.' she said. 'Grimm's _not_ my boyfriend. I don't even _like_ him.'

The squad let out a collective sigh of relief as Kim picked up her pom and went back to the point position. 'One more time people.' she said. And the squad, not ungrateful for something to break the tension, followed her lead.

Monique fell back against the bleacher, letting out a great sigh. _'I would have decked her a long time ago, girlfriend.'_ she thought.

Now unnoticed from the far side of the gym, Grimm was looking intently at Bonnie.

When practice finally ended, Monique waited patiently for Kim to get changed. When Kim came back out of the locker rooms, she fell in step beside her. 'Brushing off the ice queen.' she said. 'You're pretty Zen today too.'

Kim put her hands together in a Japanese bow and did her best imitation of Hirotaka's voice. 'To fight her would prove nothing.' she said mysteriously. 'But I guess you were right about _her_ obsessing over Grimm anyway.' She looked around. Besides herself and Monique, the gym was empty except for the remaining squad members who were already filing out of the various exits.

'Speaking of which - where _is_ he?'

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Bonnie left the gym and entered the hallway, fluffing the locks of her hair. She was just checking her watch and getting ready to dash to her car when she heard a voice behind her.

'A-_hem_.'

She turned and saw Grimm, leaning against the wall and staring at her. She was at his side in a flash, her voice going syrupy. 'Hey there transfer guy!' she chirped. 'Hope you enjoyed watching us practice.'

'I saw a _few_ things I liked.' he said.

Bonnie broadly and moved closer, but Grimm held up his hand. 'Hold it.' he said. 'Spoken for. There's a blonde at home I'm dating.'

Bonnie looked crestfallen, as if a grand opportunity was snatched from her. _'Well, I've still got Junior._' she thought. _'I beat out Possible there at least.'_

'But I have to admit, I'm impressed.' Grimm said. 'The way you stuck it to Possible in front of the whole squad.'

Bonnie smiled, her eyes shining with mischief. 'Everyone knows I'm the better cheerleader.' she said. 'Miss Perfect spends so much time saving the world that she can't keep it together for the squad. She's only head cheerleader because she's a celebrity.'

Grimm stood looking at his hand, rubbing his thumb and forefinger together. 'You seem pretty confident, given the changes that are about to happen.' he said.

Bonnie blinked. 'What changes?' she said.

'Just... things I've heard.' he said, looking totally uninterested even as he spoke. 'I've heard Kim talking. She says it may be time to get some new blood on the team - cut loose some of the trouble-makers.'

Bonnie's face fell. 'What?' she said.

'I can kind of see her point.' he went on, as if talking to himself. 'I mean, the squad is, what? Over eighty percent seniors? They'll need to start bringing in more underclassmen, just to make sure there's someone on the squad next year with some experience. They'll probably do it before the season is over - maybe in the next week or two.'

Bonnie said nothing, her mouth hanging open.

'Still, I'm sure the squad leader will keep the ones she knows she can work with. The only ones who might get cut loose are the ones she decides she doesn't need. Good thing Kim knows you're the better cheerleader.' He turned to Bonnie and nodded curtly. 'Well - catch you later.' Then he walked off.

Bonnie stood rooted to the spot for several minutes afterwards, her expression as dumbfounded as if she had been slapped in the face.

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'Thanks for shopping at Club Banana!' Kim sent off another customer with a cheery grin, which vanished the instant the customer left the store. She glared over at a corner, where Grimm stood, staring around and occasionally glancing towards Kim as if to make sure she was still there.

'You've been doing that since I started work!' Kim said. 'Can't you go get a pretzel or something?'

Grimm shot a dirty look at her. 'Exactly what part of _I'm sticking with you till Monkey Fist shows up_ isn't sinking through that hairdo?' he said impatiently.

Kim let out a frustrated groan. 'Don't obsess.' Monique said out of the side of her mouth.

Grimm sighed. 'Why was day one so boring anyway?' he said. 'I thought you were a globe-trotting people-helping crime fighter. This has just been _lame_.'

'I don't get missions every day.' Kim growled without looking at him. 'Besides, some of us actually _work_ for a living.'

'This _is_ my work.' Grimm fired back.

'Get real.' Kim said. 'No one's paying you for this one. What'll you do for money while you're here?'

Grimm laughed. 'Don't worry about me.' he said. 'I've got plenty in stash. My clients pay a lot better than yours.'

'I don't charge my clients at all!' Kim said.

'Well there you go.' Grimm said quietly. 'Not very honest of you though.'

'What's that supposed to mean?'

'I've always been more honest.' said Grimm. 'And this isn't head gaming either - this is the truth. I charge a straight up fee for my services and make no bones about it. But you? You keep saying it's wrong to charge money. How long is that gonna last once you're out on your own? You're a senior. That means college, independence and responsibility are gonna close around you like a bear trap - and _fast_. You could blow off classes in High School to go out and save the world - but college costs thousands, tens of thousands of dollars. If you don't show, they won't sympathize. Your parents may wink at the late nights, your loser part time bosses may put up with the absences as an indulgence. You may have gotten friends to cover for you up to now. But in the real world - they'll expect you to be there. So unless you find yourself one hekkuvva rich stand-up husband who'll foot the bill, you'll have to start working for hire. You may not like me. But in the end you'll have no choice. One day - you'll _be_ me.'

'Not gonna happen!' Kim said defiantly.

'True.' said Grimm. 'You can always quit. Do you really think Ron is going to be that rich husband? Face it, Kim. He doesn't really _want_ to be rich. He doesn't need millions of dollars to be happy. All he needs is you. And as long as he's got you, he'll be content. You'll both have enough to support yourselves and probably a family. But there's no way you'll be rich enough to support your stupid 'save-the-world' thing. Believe it or not, I'm trying to do you a favor by telling you this. The sooner you accept the truth, the better off you'll be.'

'Not even _half_ right.' said Kim, glaring. 'If any of that was true, I'd never have made it for as long as I have. But I'm still going strong. If I need a ride, or information, then all the people I've ever helped are there too, ready to pitch in. That's why it works - because it's not just me. It's _everyone_.'

Grimm didn't answer, but stared back at her evenly. 'That's also why Drakken and the other no-good-niks out there can never win.' Kim said. 'We've got them outnumbered. People are better and stronger than you give them credit for - and when they need me to help them, there's always a way to make it happen.'

Grimm smirked. 'Believe it or not, I'm glad to hear that.' he said. 'You're ensuring _me_ a steady supply of clients and money. You wouldn't believe what a great job it is. A never-ending parade of clients with the dumbest ideas you ever heard of - all of them destined to fail in the end. But they never give up when people like you and your 'friends' shut them down. They just keep coming back with even bigger ideas and more money.'

Kim sniffed. 'And how would your clients feel if I told them exactly what you think about them and their plans?'

'Go ahead.' he shrugged. 'I try never to insult them when I'm on the job. But even if I did, most of them are just too proud to admit their ideas won't work. The more you point out the flaws, the more determined they are to try them out.'

Kim paused, thinking about Drakken - who was always forging ahead with his schemes no matter how many holes Shego poked in them. 'What'll you do if one of your clients plans comes home to roost?' she said. 'This thing with Monkey Fist may just be the start. Helping _them _didn't make them leave your GF alone when it came down to it. They went after her too.'

'The deal is always the same.' Grimm said quietly. 'Play it straight with us and we play it straight with you. Double-cross us, and _you_ get double-crossed. And that's what's going to happen now. They broke the rules, and soon they'll have to pay the price.'

'Rules only stop _honest_ people.' Kim said. Grimm didn't answer.

'As fun as this philosophical back-and-forth has been,' said Monique, 'We've actually got a store to run here.'

'Hi Kim!'

Kim winced at the sound of Bonnie's voice. Somehow she had slipped into Club Banana without her even noticing. Grimm vanished behind one of the clothing displays. Kim sighed. The only times Bonnie ever came to Club Banana when Kim was there was so she could take advantage of the whole 'serving the customer' sitch. Typically it involved her making Kim play fetch and carry, or making her dig items out of the back room.

But as Kim looked closer at Bonnie, she actually felt a chill. Bonnie had a horrible look on her face that could only be described as a _smile_. But it wasn't her usual glaring, arrogant smirk - it was a simpering look of forced politeness that didn't suit her at all.

'I just thought I'd drop by to say hello.' she said, with a chirpy sound to her voice that was almost as disturbing as her expression. 'Practice went really well today, don't you think?'

'What do you want, Bonnie?' said Kim, sure that some unreasonable request was about to be voiced.

'Nothing.' said Bonnie with a sing-song croon. 'I just think it's tragic that we spend so little time together, as close as we are on the squad and everything.'

Kim blinked, and so did Monique. 'Wh... what?' said Kim. 'We've _never_ been close.'

Bonnie gave a laugh that sounded the same as the forced laughter used by radio DJs. 'Don't be silly.' she said. 'You can't have forgotten how we used to be joined at the hip. Everyone knows the Bonnie and Kim team is inseparable.'

'Since when?' said Monique, not believing what she was hearing. It sounded like Bonnie was actually trying to _suck up_ to Kim - but why she was doing it was something she couldn't guess. Bonnie never played up unless she wanted something, but so far she still hadn't asked for anything.

'Since like _forever_.' Bonnie said quickly. 'All that bonding we did because of Doctor Demeanor.'

'_Professor_ _Dementor_.' said Kim coldly.

'Yeah, that guy.' Bonnie chirped. 'I tell you, all the things we got to do together, like _helping save your life..._ Good times.'

Kim and Monique stared and Bonnie gave another false laugh, her eyes darting back and forth between them. She seemed to realize she was overstaying her welcome and started backing up, the ends of her mouth frozen into a teeth gritting smile. 'Well - I'll see you tomorrow at practice.' she said. 'Can't wait to work with you on the new routines - and anything I can do to...' She paused, taking a breath, as if the words she was speaking were painful, '...to _help_, just ask!'

By now she was at the entrance to Club Banana and she turned and left, waving at them through the glass like a beauty contest winner passing by in a parade.

'OK.' said Monique, her skin visibly crawling. 'Who _was_ that pod person and what did she do with Bonnie?'

'I... have _no_ idea...' said Kim, but she glanced off to the side and saw Grimm leaning against the corner behind the display stand. He looked at her and gave a small nod.

'Oh... _no_...' Kim said, shaking her head.

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She waited until work was over and they were headed back to the Sloth. 'What's your game, Probable?' she said.

Grimm looked hurt. 'I have no idea what you're talking about.' he said. 'I made a promise that I'd be _good_ while I was here - I'm just keeping my word.'

'What did you say to Bonnie? I told you _no head gaming_!' she said quietly. 'You promised!'

'I said I'd leave you and your friends alone.' Grimm answered. 'I didn't say anything about your _enemies_.'

'Bonnie's not my _enemy_!' Kim said. 'She's... just a _jerk_.'

Grimm sniffed. 'Don't get any noble delusions, Possible.' he said. 'She's your _enemy_. You keep asking what I'm up to. This is it - all part of me turning over a new leaf while I'm here. These people are obviously making issues in your life. I'm just trying to ease your burdens a little. To _help_.'

'Probable, your help comes with so many strings attached, it's better if you just don't do anything.' Kim said. 'What did you say to her?'

Grimm shrugged. 'I just hinted that you might be thinking about getting some new members on the cheer squad - and replacing some of the old hands.'

Kim glared at him. 'That's not true!' she said.

'It didn't have to be _true_.' Grimm smirked. 'Just _plausible_. If you paint a reasonable enough sitch, you don't have to do a thing to make people believe in it. They let their own imagination and insecurity fill in the gaps. And look at the results - the biggest pain on your squad is already saying she's ready to lick your boots.'

She heard Monique chuckle. 'It _was_ kinda funny.' she said.

'See? Your friend gets it.' said Grimm. 'The beauty is you don't even have to use your position to actually do anything to her. Just hint that you're _thinking_ about it and she'll fall in line. Then all you have to do is sit back and enjoy the sincerity.'

'It's _fake _sincerity!' Kim said.

'So?' said Grimm. 'Like she was ever going to be _genuinely_ sincere? I know her type. People like her will do anything to hold on to what they've got if they think someone could take it away.'

Kim sighed. 'Look - just stay out of my life.' she said. 'You're here to help get Ron back - that's _it_.'

'Suit yourself.' Grimm said. 'But just so you know - the seeds are already planted in Bonnie's head. Try watering them a little - and see what happens.'

Kim shook her head, taking out the keys to the Sloth. _'I really need some me time.'_ she thought.

Then she froze. There was a van parked next to the Sloth marked 'MIDX News', and standing next to her car was Dibble and his cameraman. He was blocking the way to the driver's side door, microphone in hand, and looking eager.

'Miss Possible,' he said, his voice jaunty. 'A.U. Dibble, MIDX News. I was hoping we might have a follow-up interview to my series.'

Kim glared at him. 'Not with _you_.' she said coldly. Grimm hung back, looking curiously at Dibble.

'It'll only take a couple of minutes...' said Dibble, not moving out of the way.

Monique surged forward, looking furious. 'She said _no_, news-hound!' she said, jabbing her finger into his tie. 'So clear out of the way before I see if your mike can double as an endoscope!'

Dibble ignored Monique, his eyes focused on Kim. 'Is it true that your partner Ron Stoppable recently went _missing_ as a direct result of your crime fighting activities?' he said smoothly. Kim didn't blush, but her eyes narrowed as Dibble continued. 'Would you care to make a statement about how you _help_ people? How did your missions help Mr. Stoppable?'

'No comment.' said Kim, growling.

Dibble held his ground. 'The people have right to know the truth, Miss Possible.' he said. 'You can't run away forever. Is that something a teen hero would do, Miss Possible?'

'I'd like to make a statement.'

Dibble and the cameraman turned their heads to where Grimm was leaning against another car. He was putting his communicator away and looking at the newsmen with a mischievous gleam in his eye. Kim felt a chill, for it was the same expression he got on his face whenever he was taunting her in the middle of a fight.

Dibble looked wary about moving away from the Sloth's doors and giving Kim an easy escape route, but he held out his mike. 'And who are you? Kim's new partner? Has she told _you _about the potential dangers of being her sidekick?'

'He's _not_ my partner!' said Kim. 'And he doesn't speak for me!'

'Don't interfere, Possible.' Grimm said quietly. 'If you try to shut me up now, it'll just make him more curious.' He looked straight at Dibble and continued. 'The name's Grimm. I've been hanging with Kim all day, and I've got some _real_ dirt you'll be anxious to hear.'

Dibble was at his side in a flash. 'I'm sure our viewers would be glad for any information you have about Miss Possible's activities.' he said, an almost oily eagerness in his voice.

Kim clenched her fists as Grimm cleared his throat. 'Leather Ninjas 3.' he said.

Kim raised her eyebrow and looked at Monique, who shrugged, looking just as confused as she felt. But the effect of the words on Dibble was dramatic. He lowered his mike as if in shock. 'What...?' he said.

'You're a smart guy, Dibble.' Grimm said, and his smirk was almost gleeful. 'So don't play dumb. I said - _Leather Ninjas 3_.'

Dibble's voice sank so low that Kim had trouble hearing it. 'How do you know about...'

'I know _everything_ about you, Dibble.' Grimm broke in. 'Drummed out of the Washington Press Corps because you didn't fit in with the 'mainstream' reporters. Four years being bounced from station to station until you got shunted to a blowtorch affiliate in Topeka. Then another three years before you managed to claw your way to MIDX news. Tell me, does your current boss know about those underground videos you did to pay the bills when you were between jobs in Arizona? Or the amateur videos you hosted for the Pepper Channel under the name of 'Deep...'

At this, Dibble signaled wildly to the cameraman behind him to stop recording. Only when he saw the camera lowered did he turn back to Grimm, unhooking his microphone and dropping his professional manner with it. 'I don't know how you dug all that up mister, but I've worked hard to build a career for myself in Middleton, so if you don't want me to take a closer look at _you_ and your family, you'd better forget everything you _may_ have heard!'

Grimm laughed. '_The people have a right to know the truth_.' he said, his voice sneering. 'Isn't it funny how all that talk about a free press and the people's right to know just gets thrown out the window when it's something the _media_ wants to keep secret? How about you exercise your right to clear off and shut your mouth?'

Dibble looked like one of the veins on his forehead was about to pop. 'Why you little punk...' he started, but Grimm broke in again.

'Because if you don't, you stand to lose a lot more than I do.' said Grimm. 'I'm just a high schooler. I don't even _have _a career yet - so if your career is important to you, then I'd advise you to rake your muck somewhere else. Drop the Possible story. Then I think I can promise that your peers won't find out that you were the host of 'Alien Autopsy IV - The Final Autopsy-ing'.'

Dibble was glaring. 'That's blackmail.' he said.

'A process you should be very familiar with.' said Grimm, his eyes gleaming. 'Get lost, Dibble. From now on, Possible, her friends and her family are _yesterday's news_.'

The corner of Dibble's lip twitched. Then he turned on his heel and walked back towards the news van, motioning curtly to the cameraman to follow. Kim couldn't help feeling some satisfaction as he got into the van, slammed the door shut, and drove off.

'I hate you, but thanks.' she said, turning to Grimm.

Grimm was putting his sunglasses back on. 'There goes another phony.' he said. 'See how easy your problems can disappear if you just step off the high horse? If you had had Wade do some digging on him from the get-go, you could have shut him down before he ever became a problem. Take it from me, Possible. People like Bonnie and Dibble are all the same. When they accuse someone of doing something crooked, it's a sure bet they're doing it themselves.' He motioned to the empty space where the van had been parked. 'He may try to keep at the story in a more sneaky way.' he said. 'If he does, I'll have Jade give Wade all the files we've got on him. Just tell him to back off or he'll never work in the news business again, in or out of Middleton.'

'I don't do stuff like that!' Kim said. 'I help people, I don't blackmail them!'

Grimm shrugged, moving towards the rear passenger door of the Sloth. 'If helping is your thing, just think of it as a way to _help_ him get his act together.' he said. 'Making sure he walks the straight and narrow - what could be more noble?' He turned to Kim, toggling the door handle. 'You gonna unlock these or what?'

Kim dropped Monique off at her house and then drove home herself, flicking occasional glances at Grimm, who just stared out the window as if he were looking for something. He'd only been there a day, and it seemed he was trying to worm his way into all the major players in her life.

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Mrs. Dr. Possible finally got annoyed with Grimm during dinner as he sat there again and watched them eat. He reluctantly agreed to wait in the living room after being assured that if Monkey Fist barged in, they would call for him.

She expected to find him waiting there once dinner was over, but there was no sign of him. 'Maybe he's gone home - wherever that is.' said Mr. Dr. Possible jovially.

'If only.' Kim muttered. She went out into the backyard looking for him, nearly as nervous with him out of sight as she was when he was right there. He wasn't in the yard either, and she slipped over the fence, stealthily making her way towards the wooded area behind the house.

It was difficult to see under the shadows of the overhanging branches with evening coming on, but she spotted him in the middle of the grove. He was sitting on the grass beneath the trees, his eyes closed and his head bowed. Rueful was next to him, imitating his posture. She heard soft words being spoken and strained to hear them.

_Omahkkiaayowa,  
Nitsiinihkatsimatsiiwa,  
Omahkkiaayowa,  
Nitsiinihkatsimatsiiwa..._

He did nothing else for several minutes and eventually, she turned and made her way back to the house. She was confused because it looked like he was meditating, or praying - Something she would never have expected from him.

She turned on her Kimmunicator as she reached the house. 'Wade - can your friends make another translation?' she said.

Wade nodded. 'Depends.' he said. 'Is it Blackfoot again?'

'I think so.' she said, then she repeated what she had heard to Wade as best as she could. 'Get back to me if you can sort that out. If it's Indian for _'I strike the minute Kim drops her guard'_, then I want to know.'

'Will do.' said Wade, then held up his hands. 'Uh, the affectation, not the guy.' he said, then the screen went black.

Kim looked back out towards the wooded area behind her house. The sun was going down, bathing the lawn and trees with an orange light. She breathed wearily, feeling anxious for the day to end, but dreading what the next one might bring. Having Grimm close at hand made everything seem to drag out longer and in a more annoying fashion.

She settled heavily into the couch in her living room and began doing her homework. 'So how was your day Kim?' She looked up to see her mother staring at her from the reading chair.

'Fine.' she said.

'All right.' said Mrs. Dr. Possible. 'Now - how was it _really_?'

Kim paused for a moment. 'Lousy.' she said at last. 'Mom, am I really doing the right thing - letting Grimm on board to help with this?'

Mrs. Dr. Possible smiled faintly. 'No fair asking tough questions, Kim.' she said. 'Ask me one about neurosurgery.'

Kim stared at the pages of her book, and the text seemed to become indistinct lines as she pondered her own question. 'I want to believe it's the right thing.' she said. 'But if you get to the right place by doing the wrong thing, is it worth it? Grimm actually _fixed_ the sitch with Dibble, and helped with Bonnie. But his methods... I just don't want any of him to _rub off_ on me.'

Mrs. Dr. Possible smiled. 'Kim, I've watched you save the world for years now.' she said. 'You've rubbed elbows with some of the worst society has to offer. But you've never sunk to their level - as far as I can tell. You'll be fine. Just keep your chin up and remember - _you're a Possible_.'

Kim smiled warmly. 'Thanks Mom.' she said.

Mrs. Dr. Possible nodded. 'Are you going to be all right?'

Kim sighed. 'No fair asking tough questions.' she said.

At that moment, Grimm came into the living room, spotted Kim, then took a seat in a chair across the room. 'The day's_ over _Probable, go back to Ron's.' she said, her voice tired. 'I'll beep if something goes down.'

'I'm here 'till you go to sleep.' he said. 'Besides, I can do homework easier here than I could while watching Stoppable's super-ninja sister.' He took his own books out of his bag while Rueful also emerged and started nosing around on the carpet.

Mrs. Dr. Possible got up and left, looking towards Kim, who waved her out with a reassuring smile. Then for some time there was nothing but the sound of pages turning and the scratch of pens on notebooks as they both went through their material.

Grimm seemed to be deep in thought, beyond anything he was going through in his textbooks. When Kim was just about finished, he looked down at his knees and spoke. 'Possible, there's something I need to...' he started, but at that moment, the Kimmunicator beeped.

'What's the sitch?' said Kim, looking down at her wrist as Wade's face blipped on.

Grimm straightened in his chair and though he didn't change position, Kim could tell he was tensed like a spring as Wade spoke. 'Just got a hit on your website Kim - you've got a mission.'

Coming Soon:

_What's green and bitter and full of rage?_

_Author: Sorry about the delay on this one. Beyond real life and work being tougher than usual, the chapter went on a lot longer than I expected. There were so many funny sitches to jam into it, and I couldn't make up my mind between them, so I decided to use them all. This was one of the chapters I had in mind for a long time, and I'm glad the story finally got to a point where it made sense to include it. Having Grimm hanging out in Middleton triggered a lot of great ideas, with him interacting with the Middleton regulars, Kim's school, Bonnie, work and everything else. But you have to write it in a way that doesn't seem tacked on. Hopefully I've managed that while keeping it linked to the overall story._

_And coming up in chapter 14 is another idea that just had to be done. What would it be like if Kim and Grimm went on a mission - together? Ideas, input and reviews are welcome!_


	15. Ch 14: Gill

A Friend In Darkness

All Things Probable 3

A Kim Possible Fanfiction

by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and its affiliates, etc. etc.

Chapter 14  
Gill

_Or: A Sitch in Slime_

Kim looked away from Grimm, who had an eager light in his eyes and turned to her Kimmunicator. _A mission_. This was what Grimm had said he's been waiting for, hoping that Kim would come across Monkey Fist or Maze while she was in action again, and she could feel his eyes boring into her as he quickly crossed the room to stand beside her at the couch, taking out his own communicator.

'Link us up Jade.' he said softly, and she saw the same image on his communicator screen that was on hers.

'I'm on conference call with Dr. Lurkin.' Wade said. 'He's got some info you'll want to hear.'

Kim blinked. 'Dr. Lurkin?' she said. 'Wasn't he...?'

Wade nodded. 'Gill's doctor.'

Kim had a sudden sinking in her stomach. 'Let me guess - his therapy isn't going well?'

Wade smiled faintly. 'You could say that.' Then there was a blip, and Dr. Lurkin's face replaced Wade's.

'Miss Possible!' he said his voice sounding both friendly and apologetic. 'I'm glad you agreed to speak with me on such short notice.'

'It's no big.' said Kim. Then warily she asked the question foremost in her mind. 'Gill's escaped, hasn't he?'

Lurkin looked very uncomfortable. 'Ah - I'm afraid so.' he answered. 'It's very distressing. I was so sure this time he was getting back to normal...'

Kim sighed. She wasn't sure what Dr. Lurkin's credentials were, but he had been snookered by Gill's 'reformations' twice now. Then again, she thought, _he_ hadn't been mutated by Gill, or been part of his vengeful rampages. Dr. Lurkin was still talking, going on about the details of Gill's therapy when Grimm broke in, sounding impatient.

'Bottom line it, doc.' he said. 'How long has he been gone?'

Lurkin looked at Grimm questioningly. 'Who are you?' he said. 'You don't look like that Ron fellow Gil kept raving about.'

'I'm from the temp agency.' said Grimm. 'Now answer the question.'

'I'm not sure.' said Dr. Lurkin, fidgeting in his chair.

'How can you _not_ be sure?' Grimm said sharply. 'He was either in his fish bowl or he _wasn't_.'

Dr. Lurkin bit his lip. 'Well - his mutation took a strange course. We had him on a round of anti-mutagens that we had pumped into his tank. But at some point when we began the treatment, he must have made his escape.'

'And no one noticed he was gone?'

Dr. Lurkin looked embarrassed. 'Well, you must understand - Gil would often go for long periods of time without saying anything - pretending that we weren't there. It's not uncommon among boys his age - they feel ignoring authority figures is some kind of rebellious victory...'

Grimm was glaring at him and rotating one finger while pointing at his watch, and Lurkin hurried on. 'Well - he _shed_.'

'Say _what?'_ said Monique. But Grimm looked quietly impressed.

Dr. Lurkin nodded. 'Back at your cheer contest at Camp GottaGrin, when he jumped into that toxic pool, he mutated into a much larger, more muscular version of his previous mutation...'

'Don't remind me.' said Kim.

'I'm certain that the anti-mutagens we used triggered a reversal of his larger mutation, reverting him to his first level of mutation.' Lurkin said, seeming concerned that they might not be following him. 'But in reverting to his smaller form, he... left the larger version behind in the tank.'

'Like a snake shedding it's skin.' Grimm muttered. 'Very clever. So you spent a number of days trying to have therapy sessions with an empty shell when the real Gill was long gone.'

Dr. Lurkin's cheeks reddened. 'The... _remains_ were very life-like.' he said.

'Gorchy!' said Monique.

'So where is he _now_?' said Kim, though she was reasonably sure what he would say next.

'I'm afraid I have no idea.' he said.

'Did he say anything during his therapy that might give us a clue?'

Lurkin shrugged. 'In most of our sessions, he kept saying he was going to get even with the 'squeeb' somehow. Almost all of his talk revolved around that in some way.'

Kim glared. 'So he wants to go after Ron?' she felt her protective blood boiling at the thought.

Grimm actually laughed, and Kim gave him a furious stare before he stopped. 'Sorry.' he said. 'But if Gill broke out so he could get to your BF, he's in for a major letdown.' and Kim winced. For a brief instant, she had forgotten Ron was still missing and was therefore safe from whatever Gill was cooking up.

Dr. Lurkin had a concerned look on his face. 'If you can find him and persuade him to return to the institute, you'd be doing a great service.' he said. 'The police have been alerted of course, but your insight could be invaluable.'

Grimm started speaking. 'How much would you pay...' But Kim cut him off.

'You can count on us!' she said, glaring darkly at Grimm.

'And please be careful with him!' said Lurkin. 'He's a kind, gentle boy - but if he feels threatened he might do something desperate.'

Grimm was out of sight on Kim's screen and so Lurkin didn't hear his derisive snort. But Kim nodded. 'We'll notify you once we've got him safe!' she said, then cut the transmission and brought Wade back up. 'Any ideas Wade?' she said. 'Where would he go first?'

Wade's eyes were creased as he typed. 'Well, the first thing he did when he went mutant last time was to go to the toxic pool at Wannaweep and increase his mutation.' Wade said. 'We should try there first to see if he's done that again.'

'If he has, he's been and gone for days.' said Grimm. 'Whatever plan he started off with, it's too late to stop. The only thing we can do if we go to Wannaweep is confirm whether or not Gill actually went there.'

Kim looked at him. He was crisp and focused, and not at all like Ron. Ron was all jokes, wild presumptions or repressed panic. Kim wasn't accustomed to having someone in the loop bringing up pointed criticism that made sense. But she shook her head, reminding herself that she trusted Wade a lot more than Grimm. 'We can still pick up his trail, and that's a start.'

'It's a waste of time, but this is your game.' Grimm said. 'Play it any way you like.'

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Soon they were speeding down the road in the Sloth, heading towards Wannaweep. Monique was riding shotgun, while Grimm lounged in the backseat, scratching Rueful behind his ears. Kim was tempted to use the Sloth's jump jets to shorten the journey and get it over with quicker, but she didn't like burning that much fuel unless she had to.

When Grimm was being quiet was when she liked him best - or rather when she disliked him the least. And he was quiet for most of the trip until they were getting close to the camp, and then he piped up again.

'Gill may not know Ron is missing yet.' he said darkly. 'That could make him even more dangerous since he'd be working towards an end game that's totally pointless. How many times did you say that Ron put Gil away?'

'Twice.' said Kim.

Grimm looked into his communicator screen. 'Jade - have you still got the details on both of those cases?'

'You know it, G-man!' she chirped. 'Forwarding the info now...'

Wade's voice suddenly beeped from Grimm's communicator. 'How did _you_ guys get our mission files?'

'Oh _please_.' said Jade, and the sneer in her voice was plain to hear. 'You guys are so braggy about your missions, you may as well have pinned the details on a corkboard at the _National Requestor_.'

'At least _we _don't need to worry about the cops hauling us off because of our work!' Wade retorted.

'At least _we _aren't dumb enough to post our intel where any loser can find it!' Jade shot back.

'Losers like _you_?' Wade countered.

'Shhh!' Grimm hissed. 'Trying to read here!'

Wade and Jade growled simultaneously before the communicator beeped off. The drive was silent for a few more minutes. Monique turned to Kim and with a series of expressions and facial twitches, she sent a silent message to Kim.

_'You sure it's a good idea to bring him along?'_ she gestured.

_'No.'_ Kim said with a shrug and a roll of her eyes. _'But he won't go away!'_

_'I thought he had his own ride.'_ Monique signed, jerking her head towards him and miming the use of a steering wheel.

Kim shrugged again, bit her lip and moved her eyes back and forth.

_'Whuh?'_ Monique mouthed, spreading out her hands.

Kim repeated the gesture, a bit more firmly. Monique shook her head, signing a question mark.

'She said, _He didn't think it was necessary_!' Grimm snapped, making both of them jump in their seats. 'Now knock it off so I can concentrate!'

Monique paused, glancing back towards Grimm, but he was still staring intently at his communicator screen, reading. She looked back to Kim, then with a small nod and a smirk, she said, _'He's good.'_

Kim sighed and turned her full attention back to the road. But it wasn't long before Grimm spoke again. 'Wow.' he said. 'You used up all the hot water _and_ unplugged Bonnie's alarm clock? I thought you only went evil that time you played me and Rhonda. And all for a plastic stick - nice, Possible. Who knew you had it in you?' He looked firmly into Monique's eyes, jerked his head at Kim and narrowed his eyes shiftily in a look that said, _'She's evil.'_

'That wasn't _evil_, that was rivalry!' Kim said.

'You're the one who said you didn't like my tactics when I got Bonnie to lay off on you.' said Grimm. 'Maybe you should have said you didn't like anyone else using _your_ tactics.'

'Get real Probable, there was a world of difference.'

'I guess.' said Grimm, sounding smug. 'I was actually a lot _less_ vicious than you were.' Kim was gritting her teeth, but Grimm seemed to catch that he's pressed the point too far and changed the subject. 'Anyway, there's not much more intel on Gill than what we had. He's just a kid who's got a thing for swimming around in toxic sludge and not a penny to his name.'

Kim glared into the rear-view mirror. 'Why not use your villain-ly influence and get him to turn himself in?' she said.

'Maybe I could if I'd had any direct dealings with him.' said Grimm. 'But what did I just say? _Not a penny to his name_. He never contacted me with any offers, otherwise he might have done better.'

Kim felt herself gripping the steering wheel even tighter. 'You'd have _helped_ him if he'd paid you?' she said.

Grimm sneered. 'Gill?' he said, and his voice was disdainful. 'That's giving him a lot of credit. A loser like him couldn't even _pay_ attention.' Kim blinked in surprised to hear Grimm talk like that about one of his potential 'clients'. But Grimm was still talking. 'He's got mutant powers and delusions of grandeur, but his life's ambitions are focused on only two things. One - bullying Ron. And two - having his own mutant 'gang'_._ It's stupid, but it should make predicting his moves easier - all we have to do is determine what he'd try to carry out either of those options.'

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The blackness of the fully fallen night gave Camp Wannaweep an eerie, otherworldly quality that Kim had now come to expect. During daylight, the trees and the surrounding green hills were friendly looking and beautiful, but at night they took on a sinister appearance. Maybe it was simply Kim's past run-ins with Gill that made her suspicious of the thick pine woods and the shadowed cabins, but there was no denying the place looked more foreboding at night.

The Sloth came to a stop in a large clearing near the entrance of Wannaweep. The familiar wooden sign was still there, and "Camp Gottagrin" was nailed back in place, concealing the word "Wannaweep" from sight.

Kim and Monique got out of the Sloth. Kim had to admit, the new mission clothes looked good on Monique as well. Rufus was shivering in her hip pouch. 'Mmm hmm - bad road!' he squeaked, pulling the flap closed.

'I'm heading for the grotto where the toxic pool was last time Wade.' she said. 'I'll keep the scan running.'

'Got it!' said Wade.

'Monique, keep your eyes peeled.' she said. 'If you see anything green and slimy jump out, or spit anything at us, then duck and _holler_.'

'Got it.' she said, but with much less forcefulness than Wade.

'How about me?' said Grimm.

Kim sighed. 'Just stay out of the way.' she said. Grimm sniffed and stepped back a few feet.

They progressed through the camp and Kim glanced aside at cabin 13. She could almost see Ron on his knees at the cabin door with his hands raised towards the sky, almost hear his voice sounding next to her in a shrill scream. _'How does this place keep pulling me back in? Oh man...!'_

She wanted to laugh because the image was so real and intense, but the happiness never rose further than from the core of her heart. For it was just an image - a shadow, with no more substance than the air around her.

'Kim?' Monique's spoke softly. 'Are you OK?'

'Yeah.' she said quickly, and so firmly it sounded curt. 'I was just... never mind.'

All the way to the grotto, Kim kept glancing from side to side, sweeping her Kimmunicator back and forth. Monique stayed close behind Kim. Grimm remained further back, but was aiming his communicator the other direction, as if scanning where they had been instead of where they were going. At last they reached the grotto, and the first thing that Kim noticed was what was missing. Namely, there were no barrels with biohazard labels on them poking up out of the water. There was no green glow and no luminous fumes. In fact, the grotto was totally dark and only the LCD light from her Kimmunicator allowed her to see anything at all.

Her light swept across the surface of the grotto pool. In the dark, the water seemed black instead of looking green and slimy, but where her light shone she saw occasional patches of blue. In the shallows, she could see smooth round pebbles at the bottom.

At last she spoke again, and her voice seemed to echo slightly in the stillness. 'How about it Wade?' she said.

Wade shook his head. 'Gill's in for another letdown.' he said. 'I've scanned the surrounding areas and gone over some news reports. After what happened at the cheer competition, there was some pretty heavy backlash against the science camp. People blamed the camp owners for hiding all the toxic sludge in one grotto without telling anyone. After that, a federal hazmat team was sent in to make sure the waste was cleaned up and the whole area was sanitized.'

'So Wannaweep...' Kim said quietly.

'Is totally clean.' said Wade. 'Ron would be skeptical I'm sure, but I've conducted several short and long-range scans. There's no trace of any toxic residue for miles around, above ground or below.'

Kim nodded. 'So he won't be able to 'bulk up' here anymore.' she said. 'Whatever level of mutation he's at now, he's stuck.'

'Give thanks for small favors.' said Wade.

'A_hem_.' Jade's image popped onto the Kimmunicator screen, splitting it evenly between Wade and Jade. 'Need I remind you that your notes say Gill can produce his _own_ mutagenic sludge?'

'So... this Gill guy didn't have any reason to come here?' said Monique, sounding relieved.

'That's not to say he didn't.' said Grimm. Kim turned and saw the beam from his communicator light shining on a patch of ground at his feet where he stood a short distance away. He had quietly moved away from them and gone towards an incline that formed a low, sloping ravine from the higher ground above into the waters of the grotto.

As she looked down where the light was shining, she saw the distorted marks of bipedal footprints. But the prints had only three toes, each toe ending in a pointed claw. The tracks led in and out of the pool. Kim was no tracker, but even she could see that the prints were several days old - dried out in places further from the water, but smoother and spread out by the shore. 'We were right - he _was_ here.' Kim said, and she felt Rufus shivering in her hip pouch.

They trudged up the slope, following the prints until they vanished into the harder ground. 'Can you trail him, Wade?' Kim said. 'If he's still as oozey as he was the first time, he must be leaving a toxic trail that lights up like the Fourth of July.'

Wade was grimacing as he answered. 'If the tracks were fresh, maybe.' he said. 'But these are nearly two weeks old. I'm not getting any trail I can lock onto.'

Kim sighed and stared at the pillared walls of the surrounding trees and the darkness between their trunks. Only rustling and the sound of crickets and frogs came to her. It would have been simpler if Gill jumped out and attacked. Nice and normal - a takedown just like any other.

Grimm was looking out into the night as well. He was looking at his communicator, but for the most part his eye was on Rueful, who had his head poking out of Grimm's pack and sniffing. The weasel trilled and shook his head, and Grimm looked disappointed. 'Maze's not here.' he said bitterly. 'Monkey Fist's a no-show too it looks like. There's no sense wasting any more time here - let's go.'

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They were speeding back towards Middleton within a few minutes. Monique sighed and tapped her foot. 'So... that it for the night?' she said hopefully.

'As if.' said Kim with a smile on her face. 'This is just a setback.'

Monique shook her head. 'But if he wasn't at Wannaweep, and if Wade can't track him...'

'Then we try and deduce his next move.' said Grimm from the back seat. 'With a one-track mind like his, it shouldn't take long.' He nodded towards Kim without looking at her. 'You and Gill have such a storied history, Possible - what would he shout manically to the heavens once he escaped from the institute?'

Kim hadn't thought of it that way, but as clear as her vision of Ron had been, she could see Gill emerging from a sewer pipe or something and shaking his clawed fists at the sky. _'I'm coming to get you squeeb! You haven't heard the last of Gill!'_ 'I think you were right.' Kim said, and she couldn't keep the resentment out of her voice. 'The first thing he'd do is go after Ron.'

Grimm nodded. 'Then I suggest our next stop should be my home away from home.'

Before long, they had parked the Sloth outside of Ron's house and were trooping around the yard with their scanners out. 'Uh, should we tell his folks?' said Monique, feeling awkward walking around in Ron's yard.

Kim looked almost mischievous. 'This _is_ my way of telling them.' she said quietly.

'Hold it!' said Jade's voice from Grimm's communicator. 'That patch of ground under the window near the living room - sweep it.'

Kim got there first, and it didn't take Wade long to finish. 'Got it.' he said. 'The traces are faint, but they haven't decayed fully. He was here all right.'

Kim felt a shiver. Gill had probably crouched there, staring through the window, maybe looking right at Ron's parents or at Hana, waiting for Ron to appear so he could burst in and attack. Except Ron was trapped in the spirit world. He hadn't shown up. And Gill had left empty-handed without his revenge.

Grimm seemed to have been thinking along the same lines. 'Time to start chillin' like a villain.' he said to Kim. 'If it were one of my clients looking for payback, and the target wasn't where he expected him to be, there are a few ways it would normally play out.'

'You're the merc.' Kim grumbled. 'Tell us.'

Grimm smiled and shook his head. 'Let's see if you've been paying attention.' he said. 'What did I say at Club Banana just a few hours ago about my clients and their ideas?'

'You said they were all dumb, and all destined to fail.' she said, glaring. 'And that it guaranteed you a steady supply of money.'

Grimm nodded, still smiling. 'And...?' he said, sounding like a school teacher who was only given part of an answer he expected.

Kim thought back, trying to remember. 'You said it wouldn't matter if you told them their ideas wouldn't work. They're all too proud to admit it.'

Grimm's smile became more eager. 'So - if Gill's plan to 'get Ron' failed when he came here looking for him...?'

Kim picked up on it much more quickly. 'He wouldn't believe it.' she said, a distant gleam in her eyes. 'He'd think we were onto him - that we'd hidden Ron, or set a trap for him.'

Grimm twitched his fingers at her expectantly. 'Which _means_...?'

Kim's eyes sharpened. 'He'll try to find a way to lure Ron out in the open - like he did at the cheer camp!'

Grimm folded his arms, smirking. 'Not bad, Possible. I'll make a merc out of you yet.'

Kim glared at him. 'Quit acting like this is some kind of _victory_ for you.' she said. 'How do you know you're not starting to think like _me_?'

Grimm chuckled. 'Find a way to turn it back on them.' he said. 'Common ground again.' Kim growled, but Grimm was looking back down at the patch of earth Wade had scanned. 'He was beat twice in direct fights with Ron, so he may try to get to him by doing something more underhanded, like going after something he values - or _someone_.'

Kim stared at him. 'You think he broke out to come after _me_? If he was right here, why didn't he try for Ron's parents - or Hana?'

Grimm cocked his neck. 'Just a guess.' he said. 'But he captured you..._ twice_ - so he may figure he could lure Ron out by turning _you_ into a mutant.'

Kim shuddered. 'So _not_ gonna happen.' she said. 'We're going to take him down long before then.'

But Grimm still had a faraway look in his eye. 'Lurkin said he began Gil's reversal treatment about two weeks ago - that would be near the time when Ron and Rhonda disappeared. And Lurkin didn't notice that Gill was gone until last night. He went to Wannaweep first, probably on foot, which would account for the first few days. That would have given him at least one clear week to come after you - _if_ that was his plan.'

They had all gone to the curb of the sidewalk and sat down as they talked. 'Then why didn't he?' said Kim, talking more to herself than anyone else. 'If he was at Ron's, then my house wasn't far away. Why didn't he come after me?'

'He might have.' said Grimm, also looking thoughtful.

Monique almost chuckled. Kim and Grimm looked like bookends, sitting with their knuckles pressed against their chins in exactly the same posture, with almost identical expressions.

'Except I've been out a lot lately, trying to find Ron.' Kim said. 'Japan, and England... I haven't been at home as much lately. He might have gotten tired of waiting.'

'So his first _raison d'etre_ to 'get Ron' was a bust.' Grimm muttered. 'But there's still the second - starting his own gang.'

'How's he gonna do that?' said Monique. She felt like she was intruding her opinion on their musings, but she wanted to be useful, even if it was nothing more than participating. 'Put up posters of his face that say _I want you - to be a mutant?_'

'Actually I've got a lead on that.' said Jade, her voice piping through Grimm's communicator. 'Just in case you forgot I'm here. I've been going through your local news reports.' said Jade. 'Want to see what I found?'

'Let's see it Jade, quit workin' it.' said Grimm.

Jade stuck her tongue out at Wade, then her side of the screen blipped out, replaced by a video of a blonde-haired woman sitting behind a desk.

'Good Evening. I'm Summer Breeze, KMID News. A rash of bizarre sicknesses has struck Middleton. At least a dozen people have checked into the hospital, displaying a highly unusual skin rash.'

The video showed a number of people resting in hospital beds, looking nervous. Kim bent her head closer, and saw the skin of each person was a pale green, and their skin showed patches of scaly protrusions here and there.

'Doctors have so far been unable to determine the source of this strange malady.' said Summer's voice. Victims have complained of shortness of breath and sensitivity to bright light, leading some to suggest they are suffering from a new form of _erythropoietic porphyria_, also known as Gunther's disease. Though this does not explain the greenish tint...'

'Shut it off.' said Kim. 'It's Gill.'

'A rash of mutations in your own hometown and you didn't _notice_?' said Grimm, sounding smug.

'Well let's _see_...' said Kim hotly, 'I've found myself slightly distracted the last week or so because someone banished my BF to another dimension!'

'But how has he been mutating these people without them noticing?' Monique said.

Kim thought. 'All the times he mutated people in the past, he did it by trapping them in his goo. It affected people by being absorbed through the skin.'

'These guys aren't fully mutated.' said Grimm, looking at his own communicator. 'So whatever he's trying now isn't his normal method.'

'There haven't been any reports of attacks or abductions.' Kim said, shaking her head. 'He's using his slime on people in a way that can't be seen or noticed.'

'I think people would notice a big, drippy mutant spitting ooze on them!' said Monique. 'How can somebody ooze somebody else up and keep it secret?'

'I've got it.' said Grimm, smiling sidelong at Kim. 'Think _sneaky_.'

Kim had a distant look in her eyes again. 'He's not oozing people up.' she said quietly. 'He's getting people to breathe it... or eat it...' Then she paused and clenched her fist. 'Or _drink_ it!' she said. 'He's been putting it in the city's drinking water!'

'Close, but not quite.' said Grimm. 'Even at his most concentrated, he couldn't produce enough mutagen to do the job. The city's water would dilute it too much, and if it _was_ working, the cases would be more widespread. He'll have found a way to get people to drink it in a more concentrated form.'

'How do you get someone to willingly drink mutant ooze?' said Kim.

'Advertise on television?' said Monique.

Grimm's eyes gleamed. 'Exactly.' he said.

Monique felt her jaw drop. 'I was _joking_.' she said.

'But in this case the theory's sound.' Grimm said. He held out his communicator. 'Jade - I need you to cross-reference the mutation cases in Middleton with any new products or ad campaigns that have taken place.'

Kim had her Kimmunicator running at the same time. 'Wade - you get that?' she said.

'Working.' he said.

After a few seconds, Wade and Jade's voices sounded out with information, each speaking as if they were trying to outshine the other.

'The hospitals started reporting cases about a week ago...' said Wade.  
'There have been about ten product launches in Middleton within a week of that starting point...' said Jade hurriedly.  
'...with corresponding commercials and media blitzes...' Wade broke in.  
'Two were for brands of bath soap...' Jade said.  
'One was for... uh, feminine hygiene...' Wade said, blushing.  
'One new restaurant and two new food lines for other restaurants...'  
'One pizza place and one at Bueno Nacho...'  
'One breakfast cereal...'  
'A new soft drink...'  
'A new flavor of potato chip...'

'Profile the soft drink.' Kim and Grimm said at exactly the same time, and then glaring at each other.

'It's called Eco-La.' said Wade. 'It brands itself as the only environmentally friendly, purely organic cola on the market that has no carbon footprint.'

'Sounds disgustingly PC.' muttered Grimm. 'Possible would have loved it.'

'Would _not_!' said Kim angrily.

'I'll have the commercial up in...' Wade said, but Jade broke in.

'Too slow, Wadey.' she said. 'Fix your peepers on the screen guys, you're gonna love _this_.'

The communicators brought up a group of hip young people at what looked like a beach party, playing volleyball and laughing it up until one of them went to a cooler and fished out a can of soft drink, opened it and began drinking while a deep, soothing voice spoke off camera.

'Are you looking for a guilt-free, environmentally friendly way to quench your thirst? Then try all-new... Eco-La!'

CGI trees began sprouting up around the partying youths, and they were joined by frolicking deer and bunny rabbits. Kim heard Grimm groaning and saw him covering his eyes, his head shaking back and forth. The announcer was still speaking.

'Every drop of Eco-La is made with the finest all-natural organic ingredients, and lovingly sealed in recycled aluminum cans by registered Vegans who ensure that each case is manufactured with zero carbon emissions! A portion of each sale will be donated towards planting trees and ensuring a greener earth!'

Grimm was looking steadily more skeptical with each passing second. 'Oh _please_.' he sneered.

'Shhh!' Kim hissed.

'So if you really care about about going green, then buy refreshing Eco-La! Because if you don't - it means you support _global warming_.'

The screen blacked out for a moment, then a man in a dark gray suit and a green tie appeared. He was middle-aged and looked slightly porky, with graying hair and a rather toothy grin. He held up a can of Eco-La, and in a rather flat voice he said, 'I'm Hal Moore, and I approve of this cola!'

A rather airy fanfare played as the screen faded to black, with simple white text popping up that read, 'Do it for the children - you don't hate children - _do you_?'

'Gag me!' said Grimm looking angry. 'What kind of pathetic sponge would fall for that load of malarky?'

Monique cleared her throat. 'Excuse me Mr. Bad Boy! _I_ got some last week!'

'How is it?' said Kim.

Monique shrugged. 'It's... OK.' she said. 'Not great, but OK.' But Grimm had stepped forward, seized Monique's wrist and forced her finger into a port on the side of his communicator. There was a sudden _hiss_ and Monique yelped. She struggled, but Grimm held her still for a second before releasing her. By this time Kim had pushed Grimm back as well, though Grimm kept his balance and turned away, typing quickly on his keypad.

'What... is... _wrong_ wit' you?' Monique sputtered, holding her hand and looking at her finger. 'He pricked me!' she shouted to Kim. 'Oh that is _it_ - Kim, you go kung-fu on his sorry butt!!'

'Chill!' Grimm said. 'I was just collecting a blood sample.' He turned to the screen. 'Jade - how about it?' he said, paying no further attention to Monique.

After a few seconds pause, Jade's voice came back. 'It's a cert, G-man.' she said. 'There's traces of Gill's mutagen secretions in her blood stream.'

Monique's jaw fell open. 'Say _what_?' she yelled.

'How much of that stuff did you drink?' Grimm said sharply.

Monique looked pale. 'Just the one can.' she said. 'It didn't taste stellar, so...'

'How long ago?' Grimm said, his voice louder.

'A few days, I don't remember!' Monique said. 'It's still in the fridge at home.'

'Let's move.' said Grimm, starting back towards the Sloth. Neither Kim nor Monique moved to follow him. He looked back at them, his eyes piercing. 'Come on people - the sooner we find out if your BFF is about to grow gills, the better!'

Monique had played host to Kim lots of times over the course of their friendship. But she couldn't recall ever having Kim at her house in full mission mode. It felt strange to her, seeing her best friend all 'professional', but when Kim and Grimm strode into her kitchen a short while later, they did so with rivalrous purpose.

Grimm went to the fridge at once, and fished out a six-pack of Eco-La with one can missing from the plastic holding rings. Within minutes, they were both seated at her kitchen table with one glass full of the cola between them. They had eyedroppers out and were brushing samples from the glass over various sensors on their communicators. Scanning beams flashed out periodically.

Wade spoke up first, sounding pleased that he'd beaten Jade to the punch. 'Got it Kim.' he said. 'No doubt about it. Ninety percent normal cola, ten percent Gill.'

Jade broke in, sounding miffed. 'Specifically it contains sodium, H20, potassium benzoate...'

'Minutiae not necessary on the cola.' Grimm said, interrupting. 'Just the basics. You said there are chemicals that reverse the mutations caused by this stuff?'

'You know it.' said Wade. 'Turned Ron from beaver-boy back to normal in like five seconds.'

'We'll need some.' said Kim. 'Probably a _lot_, depending on how many people have bought this stuff. We'll need the hospitals alerted and the victims treated. Full media public alert if you can get it. Give the hospitals any information Lurkin had on when he first treated Gil's mutation. If they think it's Gunther's Disease, they need to be set straight.'

'I'm on the case.' said Wade.

'Any chance we can use it to normalize Gill just as fast?' Grimm said.

'Not according to Wade's info.' said Jade. 'As far as _that_ can be trusted. Gill's mutation is a little more solid than the mutations he creates second-hand with his goo. We won't be able to douse him and turn him back instantly. He'll need Lurkin's intensive therapy.'

'But Ron swam in the Wannaweep grotto, and he was turned back instantly...' Grimm said, frowning.

'Ron was easy to fix because his mutation was new.' Jade answered. 'Gill is coming off from direct exposure in the grotto, combined with years of gradual mutation from his swimming in the lake when he was a kid. It's probably why he likes being a mutant better - he's been building up to it for years.'

'In any case,' said Wade, interjecting, 'It's obvious that Gill is the mastermind behind Eco-La.'

'Calling him a 'mastermind' is being a little generous.' Grimm muttered. 'But I give him props for using eco-hysteria to trick people into drinking his ooze. _Drink it or you support global warming? _ Talk about overplaying his hand...'

Monique stepped forward. 'Pardon me for being a little new on this Gill guy.' she said impatiently. 'But you say he can make some kind of slime that mutates people?'

'Oooooh yeah.' said Kim, shivering at a series of vivid memories.

'And how exactly does he _make_ this stuff?' she said.

'He... expectorates it.' said Wade, sounding very uncomfortable.

Monique made the 'time out' sign. 'Wait a second!' she said. 'Are you telling me that this Gill is selling cans of his own...?'

Kim, Grimm, Wade and Jade nodded silently.

Monique's mouth fell open. 'And people have been...?' she said, but faltered, unable to finish. Again, everyone nodded.

Monique's face paled, and she looked like she was turning green herself. 'Ewwwww!' she said, hunching over the nearest chair. 'Oh..._ gross_!!' Kim hastened to her side and put a hand on her shoulder.

'Slow deep breaths!' she said. 'Easy...'

Grimm smirked. 'Well, at least he's not selling his goo _straight_.' said Grimm. 'If it tasted awful, or if it was unsanitary, no one would buy it. Looks like they diluted it with just enough sugar and water to mask any... _swamp-like_ flavor without counteracting the mutagenic properties...'

'Aaauuuuuggghhhhh...!' Monique said, panting hard.

'It may actually be refreshing when chilled - probably slides down the throat slicker than snot...' Grimm said, smiling even more broadly. Monique waved at him sharply and Kim rounded on him.

'Shut _up_!' she said. 'How about little compassion here for the victim?'

'Good news.' said Wade. 'I've gone over the data from Monique's blood sample. Looks like the mutagen hasn't reached a high enough level to actually do anything.'

'Oh well that's just _great_!' Monique said, looking up at the ceiling and slapping her knees. 'I'm only _slightly_ freaky!'

'It looks like a person has to drink a few cans to build up enough in the blood stream for the mutations to kick in.' said Jade. 'Good thing your pal was only guilted by their ads into choking down one can.'

'Clever again.' said Grimm. 'If the stuff showed it's badness right away, people would have gotten suspicious, but he dialed it back just enough so it happens gradually. Looks like your Gill stepped up a bit.'

'A _lot _of my enemies seem to be doing that lately.' Kim grumbled. It did seem like _all_ her major villains were stepping up and concocting more clever plans, from Adrena Lynn to Gill.

'Hello?' said Monique sounding angry. 'Girl in distress here! What's gonna happen to me? Am I mutant time bomb waitin' to go off?'

'Don't worry.' said Wade hastily. 'You'll be all right - your body will work it out of your system naturally.'

'I want a pill - I want a CAT scan - I want this stuff _out_ of me!' Monique said, swatting at her arms and shoulders as if spiders were crawling on her.

'Get a grip - if you were going to mutate, it would have started already.' Grimm said.

'What I don't understand is how Gill got Hal Moore to _endorse_ it.' said Kim. 'He's like the king of enviro-activism, he wouldn't pair up with a criminal!'

'Never stopped him before.' Grimm muttered. 'Maybe he still thinks he's under 'no controlling legal authority' - and people call _me _a villain.'

'Whatever.' said Kim. 'It's time for the Kim Possible health inspectors to shut down his operation!'

'Ugh.' said Grimm softly. 'Terrible. Well If I know your normal methods, the next step involves going to the lair and breaking stuff, right?'

Kim couldn't help smiling faintly. 'Pretty much, yeah.' she said.

'And how are we gonna find him?' said Monique, still shivering.

Grimm didn't speak. He simply picked up the can and began tapping it, his finger hitting the area below the ingredients which named the factory. 'Yep - and they're right here in Middleton.' said Wade. 'The Green Industries Limited Liability Corporation.'

Kim shook her head and poured the rest of the glass of Eco-La into the kitchen garbage disposal. '_GillCo_.' she said. 'That's a little _too _obvious.'

'That's to be expected.' said Grimm. 'Remember he probably set all this up just to lure _you_ in. So go in expecting him to be expecting you.'

Monique raised an eyebrow. 'Say 'expecting' much?' she said.

'Cliché much?' Grimm shot back without hesitation.

Monique looked like she was about to respond, so Kim spoke quickly. 'Wade - we're going in.' she said. Then, remembering what Ron had done at Russ Cueler's mansion, she added, 'If you can get us floor plans to the factory while we're driving, that could help.'

'I'll have them before you get to the car.' said Wade proudly.

'Give me a couple minutes.' said Grimm, standing up and moving towards the door. 'I'm going in separate on the bike.'

Kim was surprised. 'Why?' she said suspiciously. 'I thought you were sticking with me until Monkey Fist shows up.'

'I am.' Grimm said, shouldering his bag. 'I just don't want them to see me coming. No offense Possible, but I'm sneakier than you.'

Kim felt nettled. 'I'm not _waiting_ for you!' she said.

'Fine, I've got the address.' said Grimm, holding up his communicator. 'I'll meet up with you in transit.' Then he left and closed the door behind him.

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Monique felt queasy. Kim was driving fast, and not being overly gentle in how she took turns. 'You still look a little green.' said Kim. 'You're sure you don't feel mutant-ey?'

'Just motion sickness.' she said. 'Seriously - how do you and Ron handle bustling around like this all the time?'

'You get used to it I guess.' said Kim. 'I never really thought about it much - Ron was with me from day one, so I guess we just hit our stride at the same time. ETA me, Wade.'

'Factory's near the edge of town.' said Wade.

'They always are.' Kim muttered.

'You'll be there in less than ten.' he went on. 'Enjoy the floor plans?'

'I didn't see anything that screamed 'mutant lair'.' Kim said. 'It just seemed like a regular factory-slash-bottling plant.'

'It used to be the base of operations for Whapple sodas.' Wade said. 'Until the fad wore out a few years back. It was only recently put back into operation by GillCo.'

Kim looked from side to side as they flashed down the streets through the city night. 'So where's Grimm?' she said. 'Not that I care he's gone, I just want to be sure he hasn't already bailed and joined up with Gill.'

'Oh ye of little brain.' Grimm's voice came through the speakers, sounding a bit muffled. Then a dark purple motorcycle zipped in out of nowhere alongside them. A lone figure sat astride the bike with a red helmet and a reflective visor that covered his face. But the mission clothes left little doubt as to who it was.

'About time.' Kim growled. 'If you're going in with us, you'll need to know the plan...'

'Don't bother.' Grimm interrupted. 'You and your _official_ sidekick handle it any way you like. I already told you I'm going in separate and incognito.'

Kim had a sudden brainstorm. 'You don't want Gill or anyone else to _see_ you helping us.' she said angrily. 'You don't want to damage any future business prospects - you don't care about stopping him at all!'

'I admit it.' Grimm's voice came back. 'It wouldn't be good if the super villain community got wind that I was helping Kim Possible. But I'm pretty sure I could spin it by saying 'Wouldn't you rather have me on_ your_ side?' But if Maze turns up by any chance, I don't want them knowing I'm there until it's too late.'

'So where are you gonna be?' said Monique. 'Hiding in the ladies room?'

'I'll pitch in if things get dicey.' Grimm sniffed. 'I just didn't think the famous Kim Possible would _need_ any help. I'll see you at GillCo, but don't be surprised if you can't see _me_.'

Monique watched as two wings folded out from nacelles on the sides of the _Ksikkihkíni_. It rose up into the air almost silently, ghosted along next to the Sloth for a second and then shot off to the side, vanishing into the darkness. 'Ok,' she said to Kim. 'I know he's evil - but I _want_ one of those.'

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Kim pulled the Sloth to a stop by the curb. They were in an industrial part of town, with several large buildings spaced very far apart with wide lots between them. Among them was the GillCo factory. The complex was surrounded by a chain link fence that extended up nearly twelve feet. The fence enclosed a vast parking lot, as well as the factory proper. The factory itself didn't seem as large as the lot. It was a compartmentalized building with one section that seemed devoted to office space, another section that seemed geared towards production, and several large silos that looked like storage tanks. She had parked at one of the darker corners outside the fence.

The dark night gave the place a stark appearance with the yellow lamp posts casting cones of light here and there amid the surrounding blackness. Monique was getting out and standing beside her, looking up at the fence and the spiky protrusions along the top. 'I'm gonna tear my flares on that thing...' she was saying, shaking her head. 'Can't we just... use the main entrance?'

'They're locked up for the night.' said Kim. 'The main gate's closed, and besides, it's never a good idea to let the bad guys know you're coming. This area is a blind spot which their security cameras don't cover.' She paused, climbing up onto the rear trunk of the Sloth, then held out her hand to Monique. 'Come on!' she said.

Monique climbed up too. 'Uh... there's still another six feet of fence.' she said. 'And no higher ground for the grapple line to latch onto. How are we getting in?'

Kim was looking at her Kimmunicator screen. 'Trunk door still spring-loaded?' she said.

Wade nodded. 'Jump in five... four...'

Kim checked her hip pouch. 'You ready to Ron up, Rufus?' she said. Rufus flashed his long front teeth in a smile and gave her the thumbs up.

'...three... two...'

'Wait - what's spring-loaded?' Monique said.

_'one!'_

The trunk sprang open with such force that it catapulted Kim and Monique up at least ten feet. They cleared the fence easily, though Monique was flailing and squealing as she fell. Kim helped keep her steady and they landed firmly, though Monique wheezed at the impact.

'No... _wonder_ Ron screams all the time!' she said. 'Girl, you need to give more warning before you do stuff like that!'

'What - you had five seconds.' said Kim, smiling. 'Let's move!'

And Monique followed Kim as she darted from dark patch to dark patch, crouching and skittering through the parking lot cautiously, listening for Wade's occasional warnings about areas that had cameras trained on them and avoiding them until at last they reached the high wall of the factory.

They flattened themselves against the wall, Kim peering around the corner. Monique wasn't sure why as she could see no guards anywhere. 'We'll need a vent or a window to sneak in.' Kim whispered.

From her Kimmunicator, Grimm's voice came out in a low mutter. 'Ten feet to your left, seven feet up.'

Kim looked peeved, but went to where Grimm had said. Monique saw a black square against the dark gray of the concrete wall, and looking down at the ground, she saw a metal panel which was the grate meant to cover the open vent above them. As Kim climbed up into the vent and pulled Monique up after her, she saw a clear stripe through the dust which indicated Grimm had already been through.

'I'm heading to the north side, you take the south.' Grimm's voice said softly through her Kimmunicator.

'What - is _he_ giving the orders now?' Monique whispered, and her voice sounded hollow and echoing in the confines of the vent.

'No, he just wants us to feel that way.' Kim said. 'He knew I'd gone over the floor plans and that the heart of the factory is on the south side. I was going there anyway.'

Monique said nothing else as she crawled elbow over elbow through the ductwork. Every so often Kim would stop and look back at her with her finger over her lips. 'I'm _trying_!' she whispered. 'I don't do this all the time like you and Ron did!'

Kim smiled indulgently and slowed the pace of her own crawling. Monique looked on jealously as Kim slithered silently ahead of her. Monique felt the thin metal of the ducts buckle under her knees or elbows with a metallic rippling sound that seemed to break the silence like a gunshot when it happened. She tried going slower herself, but she was simply unable to match Kim's silence or her speed.

All in all, Monique was glad when Kim stopped, looking from a grate. She moved aside slightly to make room for Monique, who peered through the metal slats out into a vast blackness with massive gray shapes looming out of the gloom. She could see the dim squares of large window panes off in the distance, so whatever room it led out into was very large.

Kim loosened the grate, pushed it out, caught it and pulled it silently into the ducts with a jaded ease. She threaded the hook from her Kimmunicator, latched it to the edge and lowered herself down, motioning for Monique to follow. With less enthusiasm, she eased herself out of the duct and slid down the line. She was proud of herself that she didn't slip and tumble like she had seen Ron do so many times.

Soon she was following Kim through the darkness. She stumbled on something and nearly yelped, but felt Kim's hand cover her mouth and heard her whisper.

'Shhh. Sorry - I forgot to tell you to put these on.' and Monique felt Kim helping her put on a thin pair of goggles. At once she could see clearly, though everything was tinted green. Kim stood out like a spotlight. 'Better?' she whispered.

'Yeah, thanks.' she said, looking around to get her bearings. They were standing in the middle of a huge room with several storage vats lining the walls. Some were enclosed with pipes and valves attached, and some open with machines poised above them, similar to the mixing blades that Kim remembered from her sitch with the cooking class. All the equipment was shut down.

There was one section with some kind of machinery set up along with a conveyor belt, and pallets full of folded cardboard. The room was surrounded and criss-crossed with walkways and gantries reached by metal stairs. The ceiling was high and vaulted with metal girders supporting it and the ductwork from which they had emerged.

Kim had her Kimmunicator held out and was treading softly across the concrete floor. 'Wade, are you getting this?' she whispered.

'Yeah.' Wade's voice came back, also whispering. 'It looks like an ordinary soda production and canning facility...' There was a sudden soft blipping sound from one of the computers in Wade's room. '...except I'm picking up strong readings on Gill's slime. If he's not there now, then he was there _very_ recently.'

Kim ascended one of the stairs to the upper level and walked up to one of the storage tanks. The blipping became faster, and Kim began opening the hatch on top of the tank. There was a clanking sound that made Monique flinch since it echoed through the empty factory.

Kim looked in through the hatch, and Monique leaned over as well. She could see an eerie glow, and also the softly bubbling surface of a pool of green sludge. 'Looks like we found the source of Eco-La's get up and goo.' Kim said.

'That's it.' said Wade's voice. 'Gill. 100 pure.'

Monique felt a wave of nausea again, thinking about how she had actually _drank_ some of what was in the tank. It looked barely a third full, but there was still at least a hundred gallons. 'How can one guy make all _that_?' she hissed. 'He had to have been spitting non-stop for...'

'At least a week.' said Kim darkly. 'And he can produce a lot in a short time. He did back at Wannaweep.' She looked back at the industrial mixers and the other equipment. 'Well - normally Drakken would have some kind of doomsday weapon that we could blow up and take the lair with it. I don't suppose the goo is explosive?'

'No such luck.' said Wade. 'I think media exposure is what this sitch needs.'

'Well,' Kim said, 'since Dibble isn't covering me anymore, maybe he'd like something else to work on...'

There was a sudden blaze of light and Monique instinctively squeezed her eyes shut, pulling off the goggles. She blinked for a moment, and heard a bubbling, shrill voice. 'Well well, so the squeebette finally shows her face! I was getting tired of staying up every night waiting for you!'

Kim turned and looked back down the railed metal walkway. A figure stood there, skinny but lithe, his skin a mottled green. He looked pretty much like she remembered from their first encounter at Wannaweep, with his frog-like head with the tuft on his skullcap. But there were some differences. A line of thick scales ran along his chest, his thighs and his upper arms, making him look even more like the creature from the Black Lagoon. His red eyes glared at them and his sharp teeth gleamed in a wide, triumphant smile. 'Gill.' she said quietly.

'Hey there Kim!' Gill croaked, but then looked at Monique and frowned. 'Who's _this_ chick? Where's the squeeb?' he said.

'It's girls night out.' Kim said.

Gill let out a gurgling laugh. 'Right!' he said sarcastically. 'Like you go anywhere without that loser in tow! He probably got lost in the parking lot! Well I'll fix him once I've taken care of you!'

'You kickin' butt yet?' said Monique from the side of her mouth.

Kim shook her head. 'Gotta give them a fair chance first.' she said, then faced off with Gill. 'We're actually here to take care of _you_.' she said. 'Dr. Lurkin is waiting, we just want to take you back to him.'

Gill's laugh roared out, echoing around them. 'Why should I go back there and be lectured about being a normal member of society when I've already done it?' Gill sneered. 'Check it out, Kim. I'm a legitimate businessman now! How about a free sample of Eco-La?'

He snapped his head back, his mouth opening wide. Monique flattened herself as a powerful stream of green slime shot over her with a grating, belching sound. She felt a few drops fall onto her back and she yelped, rolling over and trying to rub it off.

Kim sent her grapple line out and it latched onto the railing just a foot or two away from Gill. She leaped out over the edge in a long jump and arched her swing. The floor whizzed past her eyes and then she was swinging up again.

Gill leaned over the rail trying to see where Kim had gone, and Monique saw Kim fly up over the railing behind him and land a solid kick into his back. They both fell over the rail. Gill took the brunt of the fall with a splattering sound, but he rolled and threw Kim off before charging at her and sending out another volley of spittle.

Kim tucked and rolled, putting her foot into Gill's stomach and sending him flying. He spiraled gracelessly through the air before slamming into one of the storage tanks and oozing his way down to the floor with a low squelching sound.

Kim kept herself at the ready, looking down at him. 'Spill, Gill!" she said. How have you been running a factory like this all by yourself?'

Gill looked up at her, his eyes glittering. 'I _haven't_.' he said.

And Kim heard a sound of clacking footsteps all around her. A dozen people had dashed into the room. All of them were wearing brown jumpsuits with the GillCo logo embroidered on the front. But each of the henchmen were mutated. They didn't look as far along as Gill, but they all had green skin covered with scales in places, round red eyes and pointed teeth. They spread around Kim in a semi-circle, their clawed hands twitching.

Monique saw two more charging towards her from either end of the walkway. They seized her and dragged her down the stairs. 'Hey... hands _off_ the material!' she shouted, but they laughed and threw her down next to Kim.

Gill was getting up and laughing. 'What do you think?' he said. 'Once I showed these guys the kind of power being a mutant can give, there were a lot of street toughs who signed on!' Monique looked at the surrounding goons. On closer inspection, she could see some of them had bandanas, ear rings and sneakers like street gang members. 'I've finally got the gang I always wanted.' said Gill, his toothy, frog-like grin spreading from ear to ear. 'Say hello to... _The Mutants_!' He gestured dramatically at his surrounding henchmen.

Kim and Monique stared. There was total silence except for when one of the Mutants coughed. Finally Monique spoke. 'The _Mutants_?' she said. 'Bit on the nose, isn't it? Maybe you should have stayed in school longer and come up with something more original.'

'Hey, shut up!' Gill shouted. '_The Mutants_ is simple and it states our purpose! It's the perfect name for my gang!'

'Perfectly _stupid_.' Monique muttered, and Kim couldn't stop herself from smiling. It was the kind of thing that Ron might have said.

'Oh that's _it_, squeebette!' Gill snarled, 'Maybe you'll change your tune once you've walked a few miles in our webbed footsteps!'

'Ew, even your _threats_ are gross!' Monique answered.

'How'd you score all this, Gill?' Kim said. 'Even if these guys joined you freely, it's not like you could go in and get a permit to start this so-called business!'

'Money talks, Kim.' Gill sneered. 'This building was empty when we set it up for our headquarters. And once we started selling Eco-La, all it took was a few bribes to get City Hall to look the other way.'

'And who did the bribing?' Kim said. 'I doubt you and your 'gang' could just walk into City Hall!'

'Didn't need to!' Gill answered. 'We just sent in our corporate suit to do all the talking!' He gestured towards one of the swinging double-doors that led onto the factory floor, and through the doors, a man was walking towards them.

'Greetings.' said the man, his white teeth sparkling. 'I welcome you, Kim Possible, to this environmentally friendly and carbon-neutral facility.'

Kim and Monique gaped. It was Hal Moore himself, looking as crisp and beaming as if he were attending a political rally. 'I do _not _believe this...' Monique muttered, shaking her head.

'Believe it, cutie!' Gill laughed, stepping over to Hal's side. 'Not only is our celebrity backer selling tons of our cola, but he's got the political clout to make sure anyone who gets in our way comes off looking like the bad guy!'

'That is quite right.' said Hal, and his voice was rather flat and droning, with just a touch of smarminess. 'Our green-friendly business is fighting to preserve the environment. If you oppose it, that shows you're a polluter who doesn't care about saving mother Earth - and I pity you.'

'How can you be _helping_ him?' Kim said to Hal. Gill and the surrounding Mutants smiled and leered. 'He's not saving the environment, he's mutating people!'

'_Money talks_, Kim!' Gill said again.

'Correct.' said Hal, taking a thick wad of cash from his pocket. 'In exchange for my endorsement, Mr. Moss has kindly assented to give me the bulk of the profits from his enterprise. The money is quite green - and as an environmentalist, there's nothing I find more noble than that.'

Everyone but Kim and Monique broke out in raucous laughter. Kim looked angry, but Monique looked frightened. 'I'm not sure which one of you is slimier.' Kim said dangerously.

Hal frowned. 'That's polluter talk, Ms. Possible.' he said, 'But maybe a bath in Mr. Moss' concoction will help you see the wisdom of going _green_...'

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Grimm flitted from room to room silently. His communicator was held out and Rueful was bounding along by his side. He came out of yet another room, looking upset. 'How about it Jade?' he said.

Jade was shaking her head. 'Sorry G-man.' she said. 'I'm not picking up any trace of Monkey Fist or Maze.'

Grimm sighed, looking around as if the factory had disappointed him. 'Well, I guess it was too much to expect to come across them on the very first try.' he said. 'This is dumb luck we're talking, after all.'

'So... packing it in?' Jade said.

'Not just yet.' Grimm said. 'I've still got to make sure Possible comes out of this sitch all right so we can try it again for her next mission.'

'I hate to say it, but Kim was right.' said Jade. 'If any villains, even _Gill_, see you helping the good guys it could damage your street cred.'

Grimm smirked. 'Then I'll just make it a challenge.' he said. 'Hack into the power and the security systems and wait for my signals. Let's see if I can help her and be totally ninja about it.'

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The Mutants were advancing. Kim and Monique were cornered against the tank containing Gill's slime. 'I'm afraid we cannot allow you to leave, Ms. Possible.' said Hal, his smile returning. 'You or your friend Monique.'

'Wait a second!' Monique shouted, and to Kim's surprise, she didn't look scared anymore, only _suspicious._ 'How do you know who I am?' she said. 'Kim's famous, but I'm not!'

Hal suddenly looked awkward. 'Uh...' he said, seeming uncharacteristically flustered. 'Gill told me about you.'

'Nice try!' said Kim. 'But Monique wasn't around for either of our encounters with Gill.'

'Thank goodness.' Monique muttered.

Hal looked like he was trying to think of an answer, but Gill sniffed and shook his head. 'Go ahead and show them, _Hal_.' he said mockingly. 'It's not like either of them are gonna be talking after tonight!'

Hal looked hesitant, but suddenly his paunchy stomach tightened and shrank, his hair lengthened, and in a series of spastic jerks, his form thinned, recolored and changed into a girl with a head of shoulder-length blonde hair and an arrogant looking face.

'Camille Leon!' Kim growled. 'I should have known!'

'Coulda, woulda, shoulda.' said Camille, looking at her fingernails. 'Been a while Kim - _Monique_.' she said with a dark glare. 'That last caper when I met you two depleted my spending funds to a pitiful level - I could barely afford to buy two of each of the newest fashions!'

'How sad for you.' Kim growled, looking back and forth between her and Gill. She couldn't imagine a less likely partnership - Camille, an elitist snob who always had to have the best of everything; and Gill, a slimy mutant bully.

'I knew it!' said Monique. 'I knew Hal Moore wouldn't go in for something like this! All is well again!'

Gill laughed. 'Wrong there, cutie.' he said.

'And what happens when the real Hal Moore finds out someone is impersonating him to hawk your goop?' said Kim.

Camille waved her hand. 'Pfft!' she said. 'He's too busy emitting carbon from his private jets to travel and promote his latest movie.' she said. 'Like he'd notice us - and even if he did, how can he object? We're selling the same stuff _he_ is - snake oil.'

'Got that right.' said Gill. 'Eco-La was such a hit that we're expanding. Soon we'll be putting out Eco-Tone suntan lotion, facial creme, even Eco #5 perfume! And with my gal Camille posing as an army of different celebrities, we'll be sucking in every loser who wants to prove they're going green, plus all the sheep who do whatever the celeb-utards are doing! Before Middleton knows what hit them, they'll _all_ be joining the Mutants!'

'Nice scheme.' said Kim resentfully. 'You needed celebrities to get people to notice your cola, so you brought in Camille.'

'More bang for the bucks.' said Gill with a lopsided grin. 'I get what I want, and Camille gets money to buy her little trinkets.'

'Camille gets the money?' said Monique. 'Your commercial said the proceeds go to planting trees!'

'Hey, I didn't _lie_.' said Gill smugly, and he slapped across the concrete floor to one of the windows. He pulled open the industrial blinds to reveal two small saplings in the parking lot berm. 'We planted these when we first set up.'

'That's _it?_' said Monique.

'It's still _trees_ as in plural.' said Gill with a sneer, and he leaped back, landing with a wet smack onto one of the conveyor belts. 'To keep my word, we just had to plant two.' He glared at Kim wickedly. 'One more time, Kim. _Where's the squeeb_? Usually he stumbles out from somewhere to save you by now.'

Kim didn't answer. 'Fine.' he said. 'Once we take care of you, we'll find him ourselves. Got any last words?'

'Just one.' said Kim with a smile. '_Rufus_!'

Far across the room, Rufus waved at Kim with a smile before jumping on top of a large red button. There was a sudden whirring and the conveyor belt started to run. Gill's feet swept sideways and he fell sprawling onto the conveyor. He scrabbled backwards, but was pulled into one of the enclosed machines and out of sight. The Mutants charged forwards, but Kim dropped to the floor in a spinning foot sweep that sent most of them tumbling back. She leaped up to confront the rest of them.

Monique decided to take on someone more her speed. Camille Leon had turned and was backing away but Monique took her down in a flying tackle. 'Oh you are _not_ leaving just yet, you poser!' she grunted, struggling to pin her.

'Monique - what are you _doing_?'

Monique stared down in shock, seeing Kim's face staring up at her. Monique hesitated for a split second, but that was all it took. One of the Mutants seized her and held her fast. Kim's face lurched and changed back to Camille, who was smirking at her.

'Who's the poser now?' she said.

Kim sent every Mutant who approached her sprawling backwards with a series of spinning kicks. None of them seemed to have any particular fighting skills, and thankfully none of them seemed able to spit like Gill could. They weren't any more challenging than Drakken's or Dementor's henchmen.

Gill emerged from the other end of the machine with a number of Eco-La labels stuck to his body. He peeled off a few with a grimace and looked over towards where Rufus was still hopping up and down on various buttons on the control panels. The conveyor started pulling Gill back the other way.

'Oh no you don't!' he shouted, and he sent a glob of spittle arching to the controls. Rufus was focusing on one of the switches when he was suddenly plastered against the wall by the sticky mass. Gill rolled off the conveyor belt just before being pulled back into the labeler. 'Wonder what a mutant mole rat will look like?' he sneered, shouting over at Rufus. 'Maybe you'll turn into a human!'

Kim was fending off four Mutants at the same time, while several others lay groaning on the floor. She was about to deck another one when she heard Gill shouting. 'Simmer down Possible, or your friend gets it!' Kim turned and saw Monique being held in a half-nelson by one of the Mutants, with Gill and Camille standing on either side of them.

Kim bit her lip, but stopped fighting. 'No more flapping our gums, Kim.' said Camille. 'Well, except to do _one_ thing.' she said, then nodded to Gill.

The Mutant threw Monique towards Kim and Gill opened his mouth, sending out a wide net of slime that fanned out and fell over Kim and Monique with a wet, splattering sound. Monique felt as if she were a fly trying to get out of rubber cement. She struggled, but couldn't so much as pull one of her feet loose from the floor. Her arms were stuck to her own waist. A glance at Kim showed she was similarly trapped.

'Ha!' Gill crowed, sneering at Kim. 'Now here's a familiar scene! Too bad the rest of your cheer squad couldn't join in, but it'll be a hoot watching you mutate into my newest gang members!'

Monique looked down at the slime that held them in place. 'Aren't you gonna say, _You'll never get away with this_?' she said to Kim.

'Only when I'm sure they're not.' Kim answered. But then there was a loud _clack_ that echoed from everywhere.

The factory floor was plunged into total darkness. There was a few seconds of confused shouting, with some of the Mutants making occasional yelps. Then Kim felt a tug at her wrists and felt the imprisoning strands of goo snap loose. Someone was behind her, pulling her and Monique to their feet.

'Look _cool_.' whispered Grimm's voice in her ears.

A second later, the lights snapped back on. Gill was squinting as he stared up, then looked down. Kim and Monique were standing in front of a pile of unconscious Mutants. Kim could see no sign of Grimm, but she folded her arms and tried to wipe any trace of surprise from her expression. Though she couldn't help smiling at the look of utter shock on Gill's mutated face.

'How... did you... _do that_?' he said, babbling slightly. 'That's _impossible_!!'

'No.' Kim said. 'It's _Kim_ Possible. That's a common mistake.'

Gill clenched his fists, letting out a grating scream of rage, then he threw back his head and another net of his spit fanned out. But this time Kim was ready. She pushed Monique the opposite direction and backflipped out of the path of the net, which fell onto his henchman, tangling around the ones who were twitching and groaning their way back to consciousness.

Gill pivoted and sent several streams of his spit at Kim. Kim had latched her grapple line to one of the metal beams in the high ceiling and soared up into the air in a graceful circle, wheeling around the warehouse and staying just ahead of the splattering sludge.

Camille shrieked as Kim swung past her, then shrieked again as she was flung back against one of the mixing vats, stuck fast in place by heavy bands of Gill's spit. She tried changing into several different body types and sizes, but the goo stretched and expanded, keeping her stuck to the curved metal behind her. 'You... low life!' she shouted, staring at Gill. 'Do you have any idea what this stuff will do to my complexion?'

'Pipe down, blondie.' Gill said, his eyes gleaming wickedly. 'If this was a spa, you'd have paid thousands for that!' Camille growled and kept struggling until Monique stepped in front of her.

'Hold still, honey.' she said. 'I still owe you for that caper with the Fashionistas a while back!'

Camille saw the dangerous sparkle in Monique's eyes, looked at the slippery ropes of goo still holding her, and slumped in defeat. 'I knew I should have brought Debutante with me...' she muttered, then blew aside a lock of her hair which had fallen over her eyes.

Kim used her grapple line to pull herself up and landed among the cramped network of catwalks formed by the support structure of the ceiling. She dashed along, nimbly following the line beneath her, ducking occasionally as a glob of spit smacked wetly near her feet.

But she quickly ran out of room and jumped down, landing on top of one of the large, round holding tanks. Gill had raced up to the upper level mezzanine and was lurching towards her, his feet squelching against the webbed metal of the catwalk.

'Nowhere left to run, squeebette!' he grinned triumphantly. 'One wide burst and you start your new life as my green main squeeze!' He swelled up and opened his mouth, but instead of another net of spittle, there was a flaccid wheeze, and nothing else. Gill gritted his teeth, took in a great lungful of air, then tried again. But again, nothing happened.

Kim stood up, leaping onto the catwalk and confronting him. 'What's the matter Gill?' she said. 'Throat a little dry?' Gill snarled, but didn't answer. 'Let's try this without your little spit tricks!'

'I don't need my goo to take _you_ down, squeebette!' Gill said, spreading out his clawed hands. 'Besides, have you forgotten where we are?' He pointed across the warehouse to the largest of the vats. 'I've got a whole _tank_ of my slime to recharge with...' But he stopped, leaning over the rail and taking a closer look at the vat. Kim followed his gaze and saw a black box clamped onto the side of the vat, with glowing red numbers on a display screen, ticking down...

'Oh _snap_.' Gill said quietly.

There was a thunderous bang, and the vat was ripped open, sending a deluge of green liquid flooding out onto the warehouse floor. Monique yelped, jumping up onto one of the thick pipes. Soon the flood spread across the entire warehouse, but didn't rise to the point where Monique was in any danger of being submerged. Even the unconscious Mutants only seemed to be a couple of inches deep in the stuff, and Kim saw the industrial sized drains scattered across the warehouse floor were forming small whirlpools as the slimy liquid was sucked down.

Gill watched as his slime drained away. 'Oh... _man_!' he shouted. Then he rounded on Kim. 'Do you have any idea how long it took me to make all that?'

'No, and I'd prefer you kept it to yourself!' Kim answered.

Gill narrowed his yellow eyes dangerously. 'I have _had_ it with you, Kim!' he said. 'I was going to use you to get the squeeb to come out from wherever he's hiding - but now I think I'll just do to you what I was gonna do to _him_!'

Gill was crouching, looking ready to spring, and Kim went into a ready stance. But she paused as she heard something from her Kimmunicator. _'Cover your eyes.'_ said Grimm's voice, sounding low and quiet.

Gill saw Kim suddenly look down and throw an arm across her face. He smiled, starting towards her, surprised but pleased that she had scared so easily. But he looked down as a small black ball dropped at his feet and suddenly there was a loud bang and a flash of white.

Monique blinked. She was far enough away that the flash didn't hit her so hard, but she saw Gill scream as he was hurled backwards down the stairs. He landed and left a trailing wake as he slid backwards across the concrete floor which was still slick with his own slime. He slammed headfirst into one of the pipes near the floor with a gurgling _'Ow!'_ and a metallic clank.

Kim hopped onto the stairs' metal railing and slid down as if she were skiing. She went up to Gill, who was rubbing his eyes and groaning, then she heard a shout behind her. 'Kim - a little help here?'

Kim turned and saw that Monique and Camille were cringing away from a curtain of slime which was oozing all around them. The pipes leading to the main storage tank containing Gill's ooze had burst, and fresh streams of it were dripping above and around the place where Monique was standing, and there was no way for her to move without getting soaked.

Kim hesitated. Monique wasn't in any real danger - even if she was hit by the ooze, Lurkin's treatment could cure her. But she didn't feel right letting it happen. She had promised Monique that if she sidekicked with her, she would protect her.

She ran across the floor, splashing through the thin layer of slime that remained, and pulled loose a fire hose. She had it on a second later and was unrolling the hose as she made her way back towards Monique. The churning white spray from the hose washed away the pale green from the pipes, leaving them clear and shining. She kept advancing and hitting the tanks and the pipes until there was a clear path for Monique to jump away. Monique caught on at once and leaped clear.

Monique gingerly picked her way across the slime-slicked floor. 'Thanks for the save, girlfriend.' she gasped.

'No big.' Kim said, turning her attention to Camille, who opened her eyes in horror.

'This is French cashmere!' she shouted, jerking her head towards her shirt. 'Water will make it shrink - I'd rather mutate!' But she was silenced as Kim soaked her and washed the slime away from the tank where she was stuck. The strands holding her dissolved and she landed with a thud on the floor, sputtering and shaking her hands in disgust.

There was a sudden flash and a click and Kim saw Monique holding up her cell phone. She smiled and turned it towards her so Kim could see a photo of Camille, soaked to the skin and bedraggled. 'It's for my blog.' she said, smiling.

Kim smiled too, turning the hose towards where Rufus was stuck. The stream was powerful, so she didn't spray him directly, but she soaked the area around him and weakened the goo holding him until he could bite his way free. He scampered over to Kim, spluttering and wiping the rest of the slime off. 'Bleah!' he squeaked. Kim looked back towards the double doors. Gill was nowhere to be seen. Gritting her teeth, she kept hosing down the goo, washing the thicker pools away from the Mutants and towards the drains.

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Gill heard his slimy, clawed feet slapping and clicking against the concrete floor as he ran. He stumbled, still shaking off the effects of the flashbang grenade as he went down the hallway towards the shipping docks and pushed his way in. The bays where the trucks and other vehicles were kept were empty, most of them still out on delivery runs. Gill smiled. Ron's squeeby girlfriend may have busted up this operation, but it wouldn't take much to set up shop in some other town - Go City sounded like the big time...

'Leaving so soon, Gil?'

Gill skidded to a stop. The voice he heard was not Kim's - it was a male voice. The echoing of the large room made him unsure. 'Is that you, squeeb?' Gill shouted. 'I figured you and your GF would try to stop me, but I'm surprised you took so long to turn up!'

From his hiding place in the vent of one of the air ducts near the ceiling, Grimm looked down on Gill. _'He thinks I'm Ron.'_ he thought. _'This could be easier than I thought.'_

'Or maybe I shouldn't be surprised.' Gill shouted. 'You were always the biggest scardey-cat at Wannaweep! Still hiding behind Kim's skirt, I guess!'

'Call it hiding if you want.' said Grimm, doing his best imitation of Ron's voice. 'But I took care of your goo supply - I took care of your _goons_, and now it's time to take care of _you_.'

Gill whirled around. He couldn't tell where Ron's voice was coming from. The echoes of the large room with it's metal walls was too disorienting. 'So where are you?' he shouted. 'Come on out so I can give you another noogie - just like old times!' He twitched his clawed fingers.

'I don't need to dirty my hands with your filth.' Grimm said, keeping his voice low and menacing, and was pleased to see that Gill looked furious. 'The police are coming, Gil. And this time it won't just be your TV privileges that get taken away. They're gonna lock you up in a cage without a key!'

Gill snarled. 'Get out here!' he said, but he was starting to sound nervous.

'Two minutes before they bust in and haul you off kicking and screaming.' Grimm said. 'All I have to do is sit back and watch the fun.'

'You still scared of me, squeeb?' Gill shouted. 'I thought you were trying to step up for your GF! Come out and face me man to man!'

'How can I do that?' Grimm sneered. 'It looks like I'm the only man here. I've been growing up and stepping up - while you've been getting smaller and less human with every passing day. You're not a man, you're not even an animal. You're just Gil Moss - pathetic loser.'

'I'm not 'Gil', I'm _Gill_!' Gill shouted, leaning his head back and twiddling the flaps under his chin. 'Like these things I grew when I mutated! How many times do I have to tell you?'

'First off,' said Grimm, 'That's not a _gill_ - it's a _wattle_. And second... there _is_ no second, you couldn't even get _that _right!'

'Shut up!' Gill shouted.

'I can't believe I was ever scared of you.' said Grimm. 'You're pathetic. And it's gonna be so funny to watch them studying you like a lab rat for the rest of your life. Maybe I'll make a DVD of them poking and prodding you - so Kim and I can watch you suffering whenever we want a laugh.'

Gill snarled again, puffed up and tried to spit, but only a small stream dribbled from his mouth onto the floor. He wheezed, looking wildly around.

'Less than a minute, Gil.' said Grimm. 'Remember to put on a good show when the cops taser you. I love watching you squirm.' Gill had run up to the door leading back into the factory, but the heavy handle wouldn't budge.

'No way out, _squeeb_.' said Grimm, pouring it on. 'I locked every door back into the factory, and there aren't any drains or manholes here for you to duck into. You're toast.' Grimm stared down anxiously. _'Come on, Gil.'_ he thought. _'What are you waiting for? It's right there in front of you!'_

Gill's eyes flicked to the side. Only a few feet away was a door with a red lit sign above it marked _Exit_. He grinned his wide, toothy smile. 'All the doors back _in_.' he said, gurgling. 'But not the ones _out_! Catch you later squeeb - or maybe I'll catch your little _sister_!' He dashed towards the door and pushed his way through.

The door led out into the cool night air. As he dashed through, he cast his eyes around to see if he could spot a manhole or a sewer grate that he could use. But the light from the lamp post across the way flickered out for an instant as he saw something falling down. There was a metallic clunk and Gill closed his eyes, sputtering as a white, powdery substance covered him from head to toe, sticking to the slime that oozed on his body.

He threw off the object from the top of his head and glared as it clattered on the pavement, a residue of the powder inside spilling everywhere. 'A _bucket _over the door?' he said, shouting back into the warehouse. 'You actually used that lame old gag...?'

But Gill felt an itching sensation that was growing steadily stronger. He looked at his hands, seeing the white powder dissolving into the film covering his moist skin and gasped as it started bubbling slightly.

'Uh-oh...' he muttered.

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Monique was checking the knots that tied Camille and the Mutants hands and ankles. She wasn't much on Kung-Fu, but as a fashionista, she knew her knots. Kim was hosing down the warehouse floor, washing away the rest of Gill's muck. The warehouse floor was mostly clear when she shut off the hose and threw it down.

'We have to go after Gill.' she said. 'If he gets away, he could set up someplace else and start the whole thing all over again.'

Monique winced. 'Do we have to?' she said.

Kim and Monique started as a door on the far side of the warehouse flew open. It was one of the emergency exits that led out into the parking lot. Gill staggered through the door, falling down on his knees and crawling forward. He looked terrible. Large patches of his green, oozing skin had become dry and blistered. The parts that were still moist seemed to be bubbling, looking raw, almost burned. He was staring weakly, but desperately at the fire hose which was a dozen yards away and he hissed feebly. 'Water...!' he said, then with a gasp, he collapsed onto the floor.

Kim and Monique stared in shock. 'What happened to him?' Monique said.

Kim had her Kimmunicator out and had rushed up to Gill, kneeling down beside him on the concrete floor. 'Wade, I need a scan - we've got Gill but something's wrong with him!'

'On it!' came Wade's voice. Monique had to hand it to Wade. When he wasn't mooning over her, he was actually kind of cool and professional, and she thought ironically that if he hadn't been so sloppy, she might have been impressed with him before Valentine's Day. His voice spoke out again after several tense seconds. 'He's all right Kim, he's just unconscious. I don't think he's in any danger.'

Kim breathed a sigh of relief. 'Do you know what happened to him? I thought he'd gotten away, but he came back and now he's all... well he looks even grosser than normal.'

'It's a little diluted by his slime,' said Wade. 'But it looks like he's coated with a layer of sodium chloride.'

Kim blinked. Normally, Wade's techno-babble went over her head, but this was a term she knew. '_Salt_?' she said.

'Yeah, salt.' Grimm's voice said, and he came into the warehouse, the double-doors swinging shut behind him. 'This factory's a gigantic kitchen after all. Even 'eco-friendly' sodas have some sodium in them. It didn't take much to find some industrial sized bags. And salt is just the thing for taking down someone like Gill.'

Jade's voice piped up from his communicator. 'Good one, G-man!' she chirped.

Wade's voice sounded out from Kim's wrist. 'No it wasn't!' he said. 'It was an... _evil_ one! I mean, yeah the _science_ was sound, but man...!'

'The science?' Kim said, and Grimm nodded.

'I had Jade hack into Lurkin's files on Gill.' said Grimm, going up to the prone figure of the teen mutant and digging at him with his toe. 'After spending so long treating him, they've also done a lot of medical examinations on his mutations. They show his body picked up DNA from a lot of different sources in Lake Wannaweep, including amphibian sources - _frog_ DNA.' said Grimm. 'It's basic biology. Frogs don't like salt - it irritates their skin and hurts them - a _lot_.'

Kim gaped. It had worked - Gill was now helpless and defeated - but the ruthless exploitation of his weakness made Kim feel as disgusted as if she had just drunk a can of Eco-La. 'Relax, he'll be fine.' Grimm said. 'He's got enough human DNA that the salt won't damage him. Just add water and he'll be right as rain.'

Kim gestured to Gill's prone, unconscious body. 'You call _this_ right as rain?' she said.

Grimm shrugged. 'He only fainted - probably just as well given the amount of pain he must have been feeling.'

Kim wanted to slap him. 'That wasn't necessary!' she said. 'All we had to do was track him, run him down, avoid his mutating goo and then lure him into some kind of trap without hurting him!'

There was silence while Grimm looked back at her as if he thought she was crazy. At last he shook his head, turned, and started walking towards the exit. 'My way was faster.' he said flatly.

Coming Soon:

Chapter 15

_What do doctors treat and people lose?_


	16. Ch 15: Patience

A Friend In Darkness  
All Things Probable 3  
A Kim Possible Fanfiction  
by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and its affiliates, etc. etc.

Chapter 15  
Patience

_Or: Keep the Home Fires Yearning_

'And this was the scene at the GillCo soda factory earlier tonight.' said Dibble. Kim sat on the couch in the living room, her hair wrapped in a towel, and swathed in her nightdress and a pink bathrobe with slippers. Once the mission was over, she had come home and taken a long shower, then tuned in to watch the news reports after drying off and getting ready for bed. She often liked watching the reports just to see how close to the facts the media got, and how much they were only guessing, and she compared Dibble's report to her memories of the aftermath.

She watched the screen as blue and red lights flickered on the walls behind the factory. Police were swarming the building, and hazmat teams in white suits were spraying everything down with foam. 'MIDX news can exclusively reveal that the GillCo factory was actually a front for the mutant criminal Gil Moss. Gil, also known as 'Gill', was using the factory to distribute a soft drink, which was contaminated with chemical secretions that triggers mutations.'

Gill's gang was shown being led out of the factory in handcuffs and herded into a police wagon. Gill himself was wheeled out on a gurney with restraints on his wrists and ankles. Dr. Lurkin was walking beside the gurney, shaking his head and tutting.

The camera cut back to Dibble, who held up his microphone. 'Teen crimefighter Kim Possible and her associate Monique uncovered the plot, which is now known to be the cause of the recent sicknesses which have struck Middleton. A public alert has been issued - anyone who has purchased the soft drink "Eco-La" should bring it to the authorities for disposal. Anyone who has drunk Eco-La should report to their local hospital for immediate treatment.'

'Also captured was former celebrity Camille Leon, who is being charged for impersonating Hal Moore as part of Eco-La's ad campaign.' Kim couldn't help smiling at the sight of Camille being frog-marched out of the factory, her hair tangled and ratty, her outfit stained and mottled by Gill's slime.

Dibble went up to the gurney where Gill was still struggling against his restraints. 'Dr. Lurkin, any comments?' he said. 'You've been Mr. Moss' therapist for over a year. Can you give us any details about how he was captured?'

Dr. Lurkin adjusted the collar on his white coat. 'I understand that Kim Possible did _not_ capture him, and she hasn't commented yet, so we're not sure how Gil was subdued...'

At this, Gill strained, leaning his head up. 'It was the squeeb!' he shouted. 'Her boyfriend! He poured salt on me!' He nearly twisted his own arms as he struggled to crane his neck high enough to look into the camera. 'I'll get you for this Ron! You hear me? This isn't over!!'

'Now young man, that's enough!' Lurkin said, turning back to Gill. 'You're in plenty of trouble as it is - do you know how long we'll be taking away your TV time after all this?' Gill let out a sullen growl as Lurkin pushed the gurney towards a nearby ambulance. Dibble turned back to the camera, his microphone held high.

'As you just heard, Gill blames Ron Stoppable for his rather brutal capture. However, our sources say that Ron Stoppable is still missing. And given that witnesses confirm that Kim Possible was not at the scene, she could not have done it either. And so for now, the identity of Gill's assailant remains a mystery. But when you consider what the mutant criminal had unleashed on the city, it's small wonder that Middleton is resting easier knowing that Gill is behind bars and his factory shut down. A. U. Dibble, MIDX news.'

Kim turned off the TV and threw aside the remote, glaring as Grimm entered the room. He had left the factory and disappeared before the police had arrived, but she found him waiting when she got home later. Kim had been furious when, back at the factory, she had found a crumpled card in Gill's hand while she was helping to strap him into the gurney. She had pulled it from his grip and read in small simple type, _Want to prevent this in the future? Make sure the odds of Probability are in your favor!_

'Go home Probable, Monkey Fist isn't showing up.' she said, her voice strained.

'What's with you?' he said. 'The mission's over and you've got another feather in your cap. I thought you'd be out hamming it up for the cameras.'

Kim grimaced. 'I found your little note.' she said. 'Were you just using this as a chance to drum up more business?'

Grimm sniffed. 'I don't know what you think you found, but unless it mentions me by name...'

'You know it didn't!' she snapped. 'But what else could 'probability' with a capital P mean?'

Grimm shrugged. 'Beats me.' he said. 'Could have been a typo...'

Kim shook her head. 'Why do you keep doing stuff like this if you're serious about teaming up?'

'All I did was delay Gill while you were mopping up his gang.' he said, then added sarcastically, 'You're _welcome_.'

'I wouldn't complain if you'd used good methods!' she said.

'Good methods?' said Grimm, sounding frustrated. 'You mean as opposed to the _evil_ methods I normally use?'

'Yes!' Kim said. 'If this is how you're going to act when we finally track down Maze, then I'm not sure I want you there!'

Grimm chuckled mirthlessly. 'Somehow I doubt Maze would care if I poured salt on him.' he said.

'You know what I mean.' Kim growled. 'I don't want any rough stuff, not even with them.'

Grimm looked like he was about to argue, but he bit his lip and shook his head. 'See you tomorrow.' he said, sounding resentful. 'Beep me if Monkey Fist shows up during the night.'

Even though it was off, Kim looked fixedly at the TV screen while Grimm moved towards the door. Grimm stopped just at the doorway, looking down. Then he turned back to Kim. 'Oscillation Overthruster, Waveform Harmonicizer, CMC Transmat, and the Universal Decryption Matrix.' he said.

'What?' said Kim, turning to look at him. He looked uncomfortable, and didn't meet her eye.

'Those are the items my sources say that Monkey Fist and Maze have gathered.' he said. 'You knew about some of them, but not all. Pass it on to your techie. Have him and Jade put their heads together and see what they come up with.' Then he left the room and Kim heard the front door open and then close.

Kim looked after him in surprise for several minutes after he'd left. She had been expecting Grimm to withhold that information, and here he had simply dropped it in her lap. She began texting to Wade, trying to remember all the multi-syllabled words and guessing how some of them were spelled. She knew Wade was asleep, so she sent the information as an e-mail with a note to ask him about it in the morning. When she finally went to bed, she laid awake for some time, her mind buzzing with questions.

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_'Look out!!'_

Drakken hollered as a pair of workers, both made of stone, lost their grip on a heavy girder. The statues had been moving it into position on a skeletal framework of similar girders which now reached up nearly twenty feet from the floor. He squealed and rolled, trying to get out of the way of the falling steel and hoping that the angle of it's fall wouldn't mean that he was diving straight into it.

There was a deafening _clang_. Then Drakken timidly moved his black gloved fingers away from his eyes and rolled to a sitting position. Shego had leaped between him and the girder and had caught it in her hands, holding it above her head. She paused, then lowered it to the floor of the cavern and hoisted Drakken back to his feet.

Drakken wiped his brow in relief, then stared back up. The statues were already climbing down wordlessly, heading towards the girder to pick it up for another try. 'Be more _careful_!' he grated, his rasping voice echoing through the cavern. 'That's the fifth one you oafs have dropped today, and every mishap delays construction!'

But the statues merely picked up the girder again, awkwardly climbing back up the scaffolding. Drakken gritted his teeth. 'Rrrrrrr!' he snarled.

'Problem?' came a smooth voice from behind him.

Drakken started and turned, seeing Monkey Fist and Maze staring at him. 'Problem?' he said. 'I'm having nothing _but_ problems!'

Monkey Fist folded his arms. 'We've given you workers and resources - what more do you want?'

'I want a crane - I want forklifts - I want something more versatile than these... well whatever these things are!' he said, looking at the seven or eight statues scattered through the cavern.

'They are doing everything you tell them to do.' said Monkey Fist quietly. 'Perhaps if you were better at giving orders...'

'Hey, I never had this much trouble building stuff with my normal henchmen!' said Drakken defensively. 'I didn't have to micromanage them 24/7 like I do with these guys! If you'll just let me call in my own workers...'

'We have already discussed this.' said Maze. 'We will use only workers which I choose - ones I am sure will not betray us.'

Drakken bit his lip so hard he was worried he might bite through it. 'If you want this thing built before the next ice age, I'll need better than this!' he said. 'If you won't let me use my own men, then give me more of yours - at least twice as many as I have now! I know you've got more back there somewhere...'

'They are working under my direction,' said Maze, his voice less patient. 'On a project I feel is nearly as important as your machine, and I cannot spare any of them.'

Drakken sputtered, but Monkey Fist spoke quickly. 'I think that _both_ of you are correct.' he said, 'Since neither of you have enough workers, the only logical solution is to increase their numbers.' He turned to Drakken. 'Is the original machine ready?'

'Yes, yes!' Drakken snapped. 'It's in perfect working order, but it still won't be able to do more than hijack one satellite...'

'That will be fine.' said Monkey Fist. 'We must select a suitable target, but I think it's time we continued gathering new conscripts.'

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When Kim got downstairs for breakfast the following morning, Grimm was already there, loitering outside the kitchen while she went in and ate with her family. She steadfastly ignored him through her morning routine and he did not say anything himself until they were halfway through the drive to Middleton High.

'What's with the silent treatment?' he said, sounding irritated. 'Are you still grousing about Gill? He's alive and well and I hear he's already planning to get even. Everything's back to normal.'

Kim glared, even though she knew Grimm couldn't see her face from the back seat. 'Planning to get even with _Ron_.' she said. 'He thinks Ron was the one who took him down and it's your fault!'

'So what?' said Grimm. 'He was going after him anyway.'

Kim sputtered. 'That's... not the point!' she said, and was furious when she saw Grimm rolling his eyes in the rear view mirror.

'You know,' said Grimm, who was starting to sound just as annoyed, 'you're not an easy person to help. Do you _ever_ let anyone just do their own thing, or do you always try to brow-beat them into doing it your way?'

Swift memories of the time spent coaching her brothers' soccer team flashed through her mind, but she decided not to bring it up. 'I don't mind how people do things as long as it isn't evil.' she said.

Grimm sounded defensive. 'It wasn't evil, it was practical.' he said. 'Evil would be if I'd injured him or maimed him, but he's _fine_.'

'You crossed the line.' Kim insisted.

'Would it have been all right if I'd punched or kicked him into submission like you normally do with the people you fight?' he said, and his voice was suddenly vicious and sarcastic. 'Yeah, it's so much _nicer_ to just bludgeon people until they're unconscious - or maybe I should have knocked him into a tower and made it collapse on him. That's more your style, isn't it?'

Kim had to remind herself that she was driving, otherwise she would have rounded on him to retort. 'I don't _attack_ people, I defend myself!' she snarled.

'I studied the security videos.' Grimm said, sounding smug and feeling he'd scored a point. 'Shego wasn't attacking you when you clobbered her. You did it out of spite. So why don't you stop acting all holier-than-thou and just be glad that Gill's out of the picture?'

Kim returned to her frosty silence, and neither of them said another word until they were at school and when she met with Monique at her locker.

Monique was taking a large white capsule and downing it with water from the nearby drinking fountain. She had a plastic case with a few more capsules in it, which she slipped into her book bag.

'You know, you only need one of those.' said Kim. 'Wade and Lurkin both said the diluted mutagen is weak enough that a single dose will wipe it out.'

Monique shuddered. 'As long as taking more doesn't hurt me, I'm taking them all.' she said. 'I want to make _dang_ sure all Gill's bugs are dead and gone!'

'I wanted to thank you for coming along.' said Kim. 'You did great - you even made the news.'

Monique smiled faintly. 'Yeah, I saw.' she said. 'And Dibble wasn't nearly as snarky. The press coverage last night was actually pretty good...'

'As opposed to the _evil_ press coverage I normally get.' said Grimm, who was leaning against the lockers and looking sulky.

'Say what?' said Monique, confused.

'Nothing.' said Kim, with an angry glance at Grimm.

'What about the factory?' said Monique, turning warily back to Kim. 'That whole tank full of Gill's goo went down the drain. Does that mean it got into the sewers and we'll be having another army of mutant roaches invade the city?'

'No.' said Kim. 'Wade says the drains in the main production room were used for recycling purposes in case of a major spill. They lead to self-contained storage tanks so material can be reprocessed, or treated if it spoils. The Hazmat teams put a big batch of Lurkin's anti-mutagen in the tanks last night and everything was sterilized.'

Monique squinted. 'They _sure_?' she said.

Kim nodded. 'Wade scanned the whole place when they were done. It's clean.'

'How about the Mutants?' said Monique.

'Being treated.' Kim answered. 'Along with everyone who drank any Eco-La. They'll all be perfectly fine - including _you_.'

Monique mimed flicking away some imaginary sweat from her forehead, but she drew Kim closer and spoke in a low mutter. 'You both look like you had dill pickles and lemons for breakfast.' she said. 'Everything all right?'

Kim sighed. 'It's fine, it's just that... well, he's _Grimm_.'

'Yeah, I noticed.' said Monique, smiling. 'So are you, kind of.'

Kim smiled, but before she could answer, a familiar voice sounded out like a gunshot in the corridor, and they both jumped. '_Probable_!' a sudden bellow sounded out from the side. Mr. Barkin was standing there, looking at Grimm with a severe expression. Grimm went into a salute at once, but Barkin didn't give him a chance to say anything. 'My office - five minutes. I believe you already know where it is.' Then he turned and left.

Monique turned to Grimm, who was looking after Barkin's retreating figure through the milling students in the hallway. 'Oooooh, I know _that_ tone of voice!' she said slyly. 'Someone's in _trouble...!_'

Grimm snorted and followed after Barkin.

'Kinda wish I could sneak in and hear it.' said Monique after he was gone. 'Glad it's not me.'

Kim didn't speak, but she agreed with Monique. She wondered if it had anything to do with what Grimm had done yesterday when Rueful and sneaked out of Algebra class. But their first period was about to begin, and she followed Monique through the hall while Rufus poked his head out of the hip pouch and blew a raspberry at Grimm's retreating figure. Kim blushed and looked down at him. 'I told you _not_ to make that sound when you're so close to my backside.' she whispered. Rufus winked and disappeared back into the pouch.

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'Problem, Jade.' Grimm said into his communicator. He had paused once out of sight of Kim and Monique, keeping his eye on the hallway clock to count down to five minutes.

'Hummm?' Jade said, typing and clearly distracted.

'I think Barkin's onto us.'

Jade stopped and suddenly looked more attentive. 'Details.' she said.

'He just called me in. He must know we hacked into his files.'

Jade pushed a breath out through pursed lips. 'Well, I wouldn't worry too much.' she said. 'I took all the normal safeguards so he couldn't have traced it back to me. He's probably just miffed that his office got broken into. Keep your cool - he may yell for a while, but since you didn't actually _take_ anything, the worst he might do is suspend you.'

'I can deal with yelling after Ms. Darken.' said Grimm with a smile. 'As long as home base is secure, anything else he dishes out is fine.'

'It that it?' said Jade, 'Got some irons in the fire here if you're done, but you sound a bit edgy.'

'It's... nothing.' he said. 'Possible's just being a pain about how I took down Gill for her.'

Jade sighed. 'It was neat work, but it _was _a little nastier than your normal thing.' she said. Then she looked at him keenly. 'Are you just frustrated over Rhonda being gone? You letting it spill over into your work?'

Grimm's eyes gleamed darkly. 'I've always said you were too smart for your age.' he said.

'I'm not hearing 'no'.' she said. 'You want to talk about it...?'

'I'm gonna be late for Barkin.' said Grimm, looking quickly off to the side. 'Gotta go, but let me know when you and Wade are done.' Jade looked like she was about to say something, but Grimm shut off the communicator and stumped to Barkin's office.

When Grimm entered, he found Barkin seated behind his desk and staring at him with a pronounced scowl. 'How may I help you, _sir_?' Grimm said.

Barkin didn't answer right away. Instead he leaned back in his chair, tenting his fingers and continued staring at him in silence. Finally he spoke, and his voice was an accusatory drawl. 'It may interest you to know Mr. Probable, that I set up a nanny-cam in my office, in case any students try to break in and commit acts of vandalism or theft.'

He resumed staring at Grimm, who didn't react. There was silence for a few more seconds, and then Barkin went on. 'Yesterday at ten-hundred hours and fifteen minutes past, my office was broken into and someone gained access to my computer files.'

There was another pause in which Barkin's eyes were so narrowed, they became gleaming slits. He reached up and swiveled the monitor screen of his computer around so Grimm could see it. A video playback was paused and showed Rueful crouched at the keyboard at Barkin's desk. 'I believe _this_ is yours?' he said, and glanced up at Grimm's shoulder, where Rueful was cringing behind Grimm's neck and looking comically apologetic. Grimm didn't answer, and Barkin's voice sank to a dangerous growl. 'An explanation - if you please.'

Grimm hesitated. 'Permission to speak frankly - _sir_.' he said.

Barkin didn't stop frowning, but nodded slightly and said, 'Granted.'

Grimm nodded back. 'I was curious sir, as to why so many teachers here experience so many absences which require you to fill in for them. I knew an open question would be impertinent, so I resorted to covert ops. I sent Rueful to access your files in hopes of finding an answer.'

'And _what did you find?'_ Barkin said, his voice not losing it's thick and dangerous edge.

'I found detailed information which proves that most of the absences are deliberately engineered by _you_.'

Barkin's face reddened, but Grimm quickly went on. 'At first I thought you were doing it for profit - trying to eliminate competition and enrich yourself by getting paid for the extra work. But I found that wasn't the case. If that were true, there would have been a more random spread of absences among the entire school - but there was a clearly visible pattern.'

Barkin looked suddenly less angry, but more embarrassed as Grimm continued. 'In fact, I found that every absence coincided with classes attended by only two students - Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable. I also found that most of the cover stories of accidents were falsified. I found in fact that none of them were accidents at all. You arranged with the teachers in advance, volunteering your time to cover for them and sometimes even helping to pay the costs of the vacations they took.'

'Given the fact that you were actually sacrificing time and money, I ruled out personal profit for the motivation.' Grimm said. 'So the only thing left was personal.'

Grimm paused here and looked into Barkin's eyes directly. 'I couldn't determine any personal motives, except for two. One, you don't like them and you wanted to make their lives more difficult by hounding them and assigning extra homework. But I found files in which you comment on several students, and in the files for both Stoppable and Possible, you speak of them almost fondly. Which left only one conclusion.'

Grimm now sat down in the chair opposite Barkin's desk and leaned over the edge to speak at him. 'You do it because you _care_ about them.'

Barkin didn't answer.

'I know you don't have any kids of your own.' Grimm went on. 'And as a teacher you care about all your students. But you seem to have taken a more _parental_ interest in Stoppable and Possible. They say the biggest troublemakers are the ones some teachers end up liking the most - because they don't want them to come to harm.'

There was dead silence which drew out for nearly a full minute. At last Barkin spoke. 'You're a sharp kid, Probable.' he said. Again, silence fell between them and neither spoke for some time. 'I could have you suspended for breaking into my office.' he said at last.

Grimm nodded. 'I admit I acted rashly, but I'll only say I did it for the same reasons you did. I was... _concerned_ about their well-being and thought you might be acting against them. Since that isn't the case, I could help you keep an eye on Possible, and ease your burden a little.'

'Is that a _bribe_, Probable?' said Barkin.

Grimm shook his head. 'Call it an understanding. Hopefully I won't be here for much longer. But as long as I _am_ here, I can assist you in your work.' He stood up and saluted. 'Request permission to return to class - _sir_.'

Barkin regarded him for a moment. 'May I count on your discretion in this matter?' he said.

Grimm paused. Finally he sighed. 'Possible would probably think the truth was funny, sir.' he said. 'So I have no problem keeping it from her. But if I might make a request, sir?'

Barkin looked wary, but nodded.

Grimm looked uncomfortable, as if he were treading unfamiliar territory and seemed to be choosing his words carefully. 'This business with Stoppable has affected her.' he said. 'Until it's resolved, I suggest that it may be prudent to _ease off_ a little. Just so she can cope with everything else that's going on.'

Barkin didn't nod or shake his head, but he spoke in a voice that was more _normal_ than his usual bellowing or growling. 'I'll... see what I can do.' he said.

Grimm nodded, then turned and left the office. But after a few seconds walking, he paused in the hall. Classes had already started, so the corridors were deserted, gleaming under the overhead lamps and carrying his every footstep with a lonely sounding echo. Thoughts raced in his head. The information he'd taken from Barkin could have been used any number of ways. He could have leveraged Barkin into being even harder on Kim. He could have used it to blackmail Barkin into being _his_ informant. Or he could have just spilled the beans on Barkin to the school board and watched the scandal unfold.

And what had he done? Asked him to _ease off a little_. Asked him to be _nice_ to Possible so she'd _feel_ better. He let out an empty laugh. Jade had said what he'd done to Gill was nastier than normal - what would she say about _this_? He remembered getting hit with Jell-O in the cafeteria the other day, and not doing anything to get even with the jocks who had thrown it. He felt strange, as if a fortune teller had predicted something drastic was about to happen to him, but hadn't told him what to expect.

_Are you just frustrated over Rhonda being gone? You letting it spill over into your work?_

Try as he might, he could think of no counter to that question. He could only decide, as weak an argument as it felt, that keeping his 'be nice' promise to Kim was leading him to let out his frustrations on the people who weren't a part of that promise. But again, it left more questions in his head than answers, and he made his way to Kim's classroom while Rueful's nose snuffled out from the gap in his backpack.

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'You sure held onto this long enough.' Wade said, glaring at Jade's image on his monitor. He had gotten Kim's message early that morning and gone over it, and was now in tele-conference as Kim requested. 'If you'd given us this right away, we'd be a lot further along!'

'And we'll get a lot further along once you stop whining about it.' Jade answered. 'I haven't studied any machines that use all of these devices in concert. What have you got?'

Wade went over the list again, sipping a soda as he often did when he was concentrating. 'It rings some kind of bell...' he said. 'I'm sure I've heard of them being used together for something...'

'_Something_, huh?' Jade sneered. 'Wow, that's brilliant. It's a good thing we had this little jamming session or we'd never have figured out the parts could be used for _something_.'

Wade was about to fire back, but suddenly something clunked into place in his mind. 'Jamming!' he said, typing hard. He brought up a mission file that was a few months old and mostly forgotten. It contained pictures of a massive tower with a spiked electrode at the pinnacle, like a thorny robotic finger. 'The items on your list - they're the main components for Dementor's Ultra-Atmospheric Jammer!' said Wade nervously.

'Oh yeah,' said Jade, sudden understanding spreading over her face. 'I heard about that thing when Kim wrecked it a while back, but Global Justice wrapped up the base before I could swipe any blueprints. He almost took down the whole global satellite network. What a guy!'

'Don't tell me you _admire_ him!' Wade blustered. 'If he'd succeeded, internet across the world would have been taken out!'

'Hey, he wouldn't have done it if everyone had just ponied up the ransom!' Jade retorted. 'It was Kim raiding his base and taking out his henchmen that drove him to try and take down all the satellites!'

'And what's Monkey Fist planning to do with his?' said Wade angrily. 'Extort more _rocks_?' Jade glared, but didn't answer. 'The only reason we were able to stop Dementor the first time around was because he got careless and gave a forwarding address to have his equipment delivered!' Wade went on. 'But Monkey Fist is playing it close to the vest and covering their trail. If they build a full scale Jammer and use it to take out global communications, all our networking could disappear overnight!'

'So what do we do?' said Jade. 'We can't take out the Jammer unless we can find their base. And we can't find their base because of the Jammer. Paradox anyone?'

'Monkey Fist isn't a scientist.' said Wade. 'I don't think he or Maze would know how to build a Jammer large enough to affect the whole globe. But they could probably assemble the components they have into a smaller version. Based on the size of the components, what could they do with one that small?'

Jade was typing at her keyboard. 'As you so smartly noted, they can totally hide their base of operations.' she said. 'They could also use it to monitor our communications. It's also powerful enough that it could hijack one satellite at a time as long as it's in range.'

'They aren't taking any out yet.' said Wade, checking his own screens. 'If satellites were dropping regularly from orbit, I'd have heard about it.'

'That's a start.' said Jade. 'We may not be able to stop them if they try eavesdropping, but if you share the specs you took from Dementor's computers, we might be able to create a detector that lets us know if they're listening in.'

Wade looked thoughtful. 'Maybe.' he said. 'And if that works, then we'd also be able to set up an alert system that lets us know if any satellites have been taken over by the Jammer.'

'Yeah.' said Jade, quietly. 'And if _that_ works, we might be able to determine where their base is. If they're using the closest satellites to their location we could at least make a rough guess...'

'Better than nothing.' Wade said. 'Let's get to work.'

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The school day went almost normally for Kim after that. Classes, lunch and everything else came and went without incident, and she got the impression that Grimm wasn't up to anything because he looked bored the whole day. Classes ended, and she gathered with the cheer squad in the gym for more practice. Grimm was nowhere to be seen, and Kim started to relax a little as practice went on.

Kim stared sidelong at Bonnie. Bonnie seemed leery of being her normal snarky self to Kim directly, and so she was turning her attitude on the rest of the squad. She was making veiled jabs at their performance every time a mistake was made and offering her own advice on solutions. She did it mainly when Kim was looking the other way, but Kim could still hear her. She felt a stab of annoyance at the abashed and affronted expressions on her teammates faces under Bonnie's needling.

She waited for a moment when the rest of the squad was stretching and Bonnie was heading for the cell phone in her gym bag on the sideline. 'I was thinking.' she said, trying to sound pensive, 'Maybe we need some new members on the squad.'

'No!' said Bonnie, waving her hands. 'No - we don't want to mess with the team dynamic in the middle of the season!'

Kim had to fight to keep from laughing as Bonnie seemed to deflate from strutting peacock groveling toad. She tried to make her voice sound as disinterested and curious as she could. 'Maybe.' she said. 'But the team's gonna need some people next year who know what they're doing. Most of us graduate this year. It may be time to swap some of us out and find some new talent...'

'No!' said Bonnie again, and she actually laid a hand on Kim's shoulder. 'I mean... They'll train a new squad next year whether we take on any new people or not.' she said, her voice sounded off-handed and non-concerned, but there was a high squeal in it that betrayed nervousness. 'That's what the coach is for, right? We haven't even seen her in ages because she's trusted you to run things. She'll whip next year's squad into shape - no need to rock the boat!' She ended with a chuckle that was muffled slightly as she forced it through a tooth-gritting smile that didn't extend to her eyes.

Kim hummed as if considering. 'Well,' she said with an artful pause, 'It's still something to think about.' She looked appraisingly at Bonnie. 'Are you getting back in line now?'

Bonnie quickly darted back to join the rest of the squad.

The rest of practice went smoothly, and eventually the squad went back into the locker room while Kim stayed out to put away the equipment.

'See how easy it is?'

Kim jumped and turned, hearing Grimm's amused voice. He had been around the corner behind the bleachers and leaned out after Bonnie had left. He smirked and bowed slightly. 'You don't even have to boot her from the squad if you don't want to.' he said. 'Just keep thinking of clever ways to hold the threat over her head and you'll _own_ her.'

Kim flushed a little. 'I didn't do it to own her.' she said. 'I only did it to get her to back off the rest of the squad.'

Grimm spread out his hands. 'Hey, I'm with you on this.' he said. 'She had it coming - and I think anything you do to protect your friends from her is... _justified_.' Then he turned away with a sly look.

Kim wanted to argue. But he had just agreed with her - and that disturbed her more than anything else he might have said. She sighed and returned to putting the equipment away.

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Evening was passing, but Kim finished her homework a bit early. Barkin hadn't assigned her nearly as much as he normally did, and she wondered briefly if he was going soft. But as she put her books away, she noticed that Grimm was missing.

Immediately suspicious, she went through most of the rooms on the lower floor, but there was no sign of him. She took Rufus out of her hip pouch and set him down. 'Find jerk guy.' she said, hoping that would be enough for him. Rufus signed _OK_ to her and scampered off, sniffing here and there.

Rufus eventually went into the kitchen and began scrabbling at the sliding glass door. Kim shook her head, guessing where he was. She had no idea why he was so fascinated by the woods behind her house. He had stashed his bike there before they made their arrangement, but his bike was now in the garage at Ron's house - why was he still haunting the area behind her backyard?

She picked up Rufus, made her way stealthily to the small wooded area and saw that he was there, kneeling on the grass with his head bowed as if he were meditating. She edged slightly closer, and heard him chanting the same words he had used before. Puzzled, she backed away and returned to the house, activating her Kimmunicator as she went.

Wade popped up, but he was wearing welding goggles and had a soldering iron in his hand. A veritable tangle of wires was behind him, sending out occasional sparks. 'I'm kinda in the middle of something Kim.' he said without preamble. 'Important?'

'Maybe.' she said. 'I was just wondering if you'd managed to translate those words I gave you yesterday.'

'Oh yeah, I forgot.' said Wade. 'I had the translation earlier, but I got sidetracked when I started on this thing.'

'So how about it?' she asked.

'Do you want it literal or flowery?'

Kim took a look at the eager glint in his eye and smiled. 'Flowery.' she said. And Wade smiled back. A string of words popped up on Kim's screen and she read them curiously.

_Spirit of the Bear,  
hear your servant's prayer  
Strength from mother Earth,  
break the evil curse_

When she was finished reading closed the window and brought up Wade's face again. 'What does _that_ mean?' she said.

'Pretty much what it says.' said Wade, shrugging. 'He's asking the Great Bear Spirit for help.'

Kim blinked in surprise. 'Thanks...' she said off-handedly. Wade had nodded and was back working on the mass of wires before she had turned off the Kimmunicator. Kim sat down on a picnic table bench on the patio, thinking.

She remembered that Maze had mentioned the Bear Spirit when they met at the UNIT labs.

_ 'It is a mystical power that belongs to my people - the Blackfoot Indians. These two came among our tribe some time ago, they deceived us and stole the power for themselves...'_

Kim felt troubled. She knew Grimm was a louse, he had proved it time and again - even when he said he was trying to help her. But if he and Rhonda had somehow 'stolen' the power of this Bear Spirit, then why was Grimm _asking_ it for help? The normal pattern for when a villain got some new power was to crow about it and jump around saying '_now this power belongs to me'_ or '_now this power is mine to command'_. It just didn't seem like Grimm to supplicate himself to anyone. She tried to see it from another perspective, wondering what his angle was and what he was trying to accomplish. But again she could think of no answers, and went back into the house to get ready for bed.

Grimm continued to kneel and chant softly, trying to shut out any distractions, trying to ignore even the feel of the air around him and the sound of Rueful nosing around in the grove.

_Omahkkiaayowa,__  
Nitsiinihkatsimatsiiwa,  
__Omahkkiaayowa,  
Nitsiinihkatsimatsiiwa..._

He sighed, cracking his eyes open to look at his watch. He could only spare a few more minutes before he had to tend to other things. '_Come on Great Bear...'_ he thought in exasperation. _'I'm trying to help you here, why won't you answer?'_

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_Ron was talking eagerly to Rhonda. While sharing truths, somehow they had gotten onto the subject of his camp experience. It had started off normally enough, but Rhonda had stared at him with such intensity as he spoke, and had sympathized so perfectly, that the conversation had turned into a full-blown emotional tennis match as they rapidly spoke back and forth._

_'...and they made me share my cabin with the camp's rabid monkey mascot!' Ron said.__  
'I had to share mine with a grizzly bear cub!' she said.__'...there was poison ivy everywhere! I was itching for months...'  
'...everything I touched caught on fire - they called me "Firebringer!"  
'...I had to hide food under a floorboard in the cabin, or the monkey would eat all my meals!'  
'...the Kwitcherbeliakin food was always 'healthy'! I never had to hide it because no one ever wanted to steal any! They never had pizza night...!'  
'...there was a bully there who hassled me every day! He called me squeeb!'  
'...two jerks from my troop ditched me in the woods...!'  
'...the lake was full of toxic waste and they wanted us to swim in it!'  
'...none of the animals would leave me alone!'_

_And both of them shouted at the same time. '...and my parents wouldn't take my phone calls anymore!'_

_'No one believed me when I told them what it was like!' Ron said, holding out his arms. 'They all said I was just imagining things! Do you have any idea how much that hurts?'_

_Rhonda threw her arms around him. 'Yes!' she shouted, bursting into tears. 'Yes! Oh god, yes!'_

_They hugged for a few seconds before they seemed to realize what had happened and then they quickly broke apart, stammering uncomfortably._

_'Ah, OK I guess that's enough truth sharing for now.' he said, twiddling his thumbs._

_'Yeah. Yeah.' Rhonda, looking off in the distance. 'I... feel much better, guess we should call it a night... or a day... or whatever they call it here.'_

_An awkward silence fell in which Rhonda wiped away the tears from her eyes. She really was feeling better - the uncomfortable sensations that had oppressed her seemed mostly gone, or maybe they had simply been replaced by the feelings she had shared with Ron while remembering their camp days. As much as she liked Grimm, he simply hadn't grasped what a nightmare it had been..._

_As her mind drifted to thoughts about Grimm, it seemed to her that the mists in front of her drew aside, forming a ragged window. As if through a foggy glass, she saw a teenage boy with spiked hair kneeling down on a patch of grass in a wooded glade. Distant and echoing, she heard a voice chanting._

_Omahkkiaayowa,  
Nitsiinihkatsimatsiiwa,  
Omahkkiaayowa,  
Nitsiinihkatsimatsiiwa..._

_'Grimm!' she shouted. 'I'm here! Help me - please...!' For a moment, she saw Rueful stop, his head swiveled towards her as if he could see her, and she waved desperately, but the vision faded into swirling dark mist. 'Wait! Don't go!' she shrieked, but she knew that she could hardly control whatever had happened just by shouting._

_Next to her, Ron was smiling. 'Hey, you saw your BF, didn't you? Looks like the Ron-man's got the mad training skills!' But he fell silent as Rhonda broke down in tears, burying her head into his chest._

_'I saw him!' she sobbed, her voice half miserable, half overjoyed. 'I saw him... I miss him so much!'_

_Ron felt awkward, but it didn't seem right to just push her away. He knew somehow that she needed this, to cry and just be held by someone who understood. He raised one hesitant hand and patted her on the back, wishing he could have had another vision of Kim just then to hopefully hear some advice on how to deal with a crying girl..._

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Grimm stopped his chanting, hearing a series of high-pitched squeaks. Rueful was scurrying around in a circle, stopping every so often and pointing at an area in front of him. Grimm watched curiously, for it seemed like Rueful was desperately trying to show him something, but he couldn't see anything but the trees and the grass.

It was getting late, and he had homework to finish, and strategy sessions with Jade. He also figured he'd have to watch Hana again and try to find a way to keep her from running around on the ceiling. There was no answer from the Great Bear, and he couldn't afford to spend any more time tonight in trying. He hoisted himself to his feet, shouldering his book bag.

'Come on little guy.' he said. 'Today's another bust - let's head back to Ron's.' And ignoring Rueful's chittering, he made his way back through the field behind Kim's house.

Rueful lingered in the grove for another minute, dashing back and forth around the point where he had _felt_ Rhonda's presence. But it was gone now, and with a mournful sounding squeak, he followed after Grimm.

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Monkey Fist watched with some amusement as Maze prowled around the mini-UAJ, looking anxious. Unlike before, Maze now seemed to have no apprehension about using the device. Indeed, he now seemed eager at the prospect, his dark eyes glittering as the machine continued to power up.

Drakken was manning the computer consoles. 'You'll only have an hour or two to do... whatever it is you're doing.' he said. 'After that, the satellite goes out of range you'll have to wait for another one with the same transmission capabilities.'

'That will be enough.' said Monkey Fist, lowering the helmet onto his head and fitting his arms into the harness. _'Ssikipoyiwa_ - prepare yourself to act once I've finished.'

Maze nodded and stood back. A revving hum began to echo through the cavern. Energy pulsed through the cables that spread out behind the machine, and the machine itself began glowing on it's various readouts and gauges.

Monkey Fist concentrated on his chosen target. It was another rural town, very much like Graniton, with a modest number of homes and an isolated population. It was an out of the way community, and not likely to be investigated anytime soon. He focused, trying to dredge up within himself the same feelings of hate as when he had fought against Kim.

The gleam in Maze's eyes became more bright and yet more cold as he saw a yellow glow begin to form around his ally...

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Kim had finished breakfast, and was pondering in her mind about how a few days ago, the prospect of having Grimm Probable in her house would have sent her into a fury. Now she passed by him like a hat stand as she went about her preparations for the new day.

There was a tuneful beeping from her wrist, and she raised her Kimmunicator to see Wade's face. 'Good news, Kim!' he said brightly.

'As opposed to the _evil_ news I normally get.' Grimm muttered from the background.

'Huh?' said Wade, looking confused.

'What's the sitch, Wade?' Kim said, cutting across Grimm with a hard stare.

Wade sat back, looking smugly pleased. 'I put together a machine that should let us detect when Monkey Fist and Maze are using their jammer to commandeer any satellites. If we're lucky, then we'll also be able to identify any satellites they're controlling.'

'Spankin!' Kim said.

'What's Jade been up to?' said Grimm, looking into his own communicator. 'She was supposed to be helping you.'

Wade looked resentful, but answered. 'There were two phases to our work. I was on phase one - making the machine that _might_ let us find them. Jade's on phase two - coming up with something that might help us _when_ we find them.'

Grimm nodded curtly but asked no more questions. Wade stepped to the side, revealing a large device behind him. Unused parts and tools were scattered on the floor around it. The machine hummed with a regular pulsing sound and a large pane of black glass showed an oscilloscope readout, flatlined and at the zero position. 'The principle is simple.' he said. 'All the normal frequencies of all the satellites communicating with earth are entered in. The minute an aberrant signal shows up, the alarm goes off.'

He tapped the screen proudly, but jumped back as a light on the screen suddenly jumped and a high pitched beeping sounded.

Kim looked at him with a raised brow. 'You didn't break it already did you?' she said.

But Wade was at his keyboard typing madly. 'Woah.' he said. 'That was fast.'

Grimm was leaning forward. 'This isn't a malfunction is it?' he said seriously. 'They're on the move.'

'Looks like we got lucky.' Wade said. 'If our detector is working right, then they're using their jammer right _now_.'

'Can you trace...' Kim started, but Wade broke in.

'No - the jammer's signals are too encrypted. All we can do is trace which satellite they're controlling. We can't trace it back to their base.'

'Can you find out what they're using the satellite for?' Kim tried again.

Wade was staring at his screen. 'There was a massive energy spike. The satellite is relaying some kind of signal to a target on the ground.'

'Where?' Kim said.

Wade was typing frantically. 'It's... England again.' he said. 'I can't get an exact location, but I can get you within a dozen miles or so.'

'We'll take it.' said Kim firmly. 'If Monkey Fist is there, and if he uses the Yono's power again, then all we have to do is follow the yellow lights. Let Monique know, and see if you can find fast transport. Otherwise we may have to use the Sloth's sub-orbital jets.'

Wade nodded and blipped off the Kimmunicator screen.

Kim looked back over to Grimm. 'What are you waiting for?' she said. 'Suit up.'

Coming Soon:  
Chapter 16

_This is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt..._


	17. Ch 16: Despair

A Friend In Darkness  
All Things Probable 3

A Kim Possible Fanfiction  
by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and its affiliates, etc. etc.

Chapter 16  
Despair_  
Or: Tatters of the Heart_

Maze stepped out of the Immersion Pod and stumbled on the cavern floor. Monkey Fist gripped his arm and held him up. 'Are you all right?' he said.

Maze nodded. 'I am weary,' he said, 'But it was not as difficult as before.'

'Good.' said Monkey Fist. 'Because I think we should travel to Basalton without delay to collect our new charges. Can you manage it?'

'Well isn't anyone going to _thank_ me?' said Drakken peevishly. 'The refinements I made to your hodgepodge have obviously paid off - now your device is even more off the heezy!'

Monkey Fist and Maze stared at him blankly. Drakken sighed. 'Shego, say 'Go Drakken!' he said.

'Go Drakken.' said Shego, her voice flat and emotionless. Drakken bowed like an actor on a stage.

'Continue with the work.' said Maze, turning away. 'We should be back in less than a day.'

Drakken looked up. 'So....' he said, and he couldn't keep the eager cunning out of his voice, '...I'll have free reign to do as I wish until you get back?'

'Certainly.' said Monkey Fist. 'Within the confines we have already set.'

'And what if I choose to step outside them?' said Drakken.

'You could try.' said Monkey Fist, and he and Maze strode towards the dark tunnel, which led out of the cavern. 'Though I would not advise it. If you think to betray us in any way - you will find that Shego may become.... _grumpy_.'

Drakken winced. 'She's always....' he started, but then Shego brought her arm down and shattered the stone chair next to him. 'Aaaah!' he shouted. 'All right - confines - got it!'

Maze and Monkey Fist left the lair without another word or a backward glance. Drakken watched them go and waited for a few minutes, craning his neck towards the exit to make sure they weren't coming back. Then he started edging his way towards the inner caverns, hoping to see the project that Maze had said was so important.

At once, the statues working on the framework to the Jammer broke ranks and blocked his way. Shego's arm pulled him roughly back towards his work station. 'That place is forbidden.' Shego said with annoying finality.

'But...' Drakken said, pointing towards the cavern.

'Forbidden.' Shego said, more loudly.

'I just want a peek....!'

'Forbidden.' she said again.

'Oh come on, no one will know!'

'Forbidden!' she said.

Drakken slumped into the spare chair next to the crumbled one. The other statues were still barring the way. It was not until he resumed working on his computer that the statues returned to their own work.

He grumbled as he kept working at the design schematics and construction spreadsheets. _'This isn't what I signed up for!'_ he thought resentfully. _'They don't even have any laser death traps to strap Kim Possible to!'_

Drakken stared at Shego, who was silent and still. A sudden thought came to him. 'Shego - fetch me... a _dodo_ bird.' he said.

Shego answered, but her voice was utterly dead sounding. 'I can't fetch you a dodo bird. The dodo is extinct. Command me to fetch you something that exists. I will obey.'

Drakken looked at her in silence, then his face fell. 'You're no _fun_ anymore.' he said softly before going back to work.

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'Thanks for letting us hitch a ride, Captain Ariflax.' said Kim.

'Not at all, Ms. Possible.' said the dapper Austrian pilot. 'You saved the original Concorde from that Electronique person. The least I can do is spare you some space in the luggage hold. You're sure you would not prefer seating in the passenger areas? It can get quite cold in here once we are at cruising altitude, and the seating up top is much more comfortable...'

'We don't want to be any trouble, Captain.' said Kim, smiling and shaking her head. 'It's no big.'

After Ariflax had left, Kim checked the computer readout on the back of her hand. She had gone through nearly all the self-diagnostics, and they were all reading green. Her battle-suit was charged and ready. She wore a purple jacket over it, to minimize the staring from passengers and pilots alike when she had made her way to the tarmac at the Middleton airport.

It had not taken Wade long to find another ride willing to take her overseas, and luckily the Concorde2 was stopping off at Heathrow in London anyway, so they would not have to impose. The jet normally didn't carry much freight besides passenger baggage, but once the captain learned that it was Kim asking the favor, he had been eager to give the chance.

She got into the Sloth where Monique and Wade were seated in the backseat. Wade kept glancing at Monique, a wistful look in his eyes. He was slowly scooting closer to her, whistling nonchalantly.

'Do _not_ even try it!' said Monique, and Wade quickly shuffled back to the edge near the window. Monique sighed. She was only just coming to grips with the weirdness of the Gill mission, and she was already tagging along on another. She didn't think her nerves could put up with the added burden of having to fend off Wade's puppy-love.

She looked to Kim to back her up and to say something to remind Wade that he was supposed to be 'over' her, but one glance told her that Kim would be little help. She was sitting behind the steering wheel, her elbow on the window frame, and was staring blankly at the _Ksikkihkíni_, which was clamped down next to the Sloth, but without a rider. Grimm was nowhere to be seen.

'Don't obsess, girl.' Monique said, and Kim seemed to shake herself, her focus returning.

'Can't help wondering.' she said. 'This is probably the chance he's been waiting for. I thought he'd be more on the spot.'

Monique frowned. From all she had seen of Grimm since his arrival in Middleton, he was _always_ 'on the spot', even when it seemed like he wasn't. He was like a spider tending to several webs at once, but always ready to pounce if he felt the slightest quiver from any of them. She looked around the cargo hold, but didn't see him anywhere, and despite her own advice she joined Kim in wondering where he was.

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Grimm stood behind a cluster of crates not far from the Sloth, pulling on gloves and a pair of boots. 'Is it ready?' he said, pausing to pick up his communicator.

Jade's face stared back at him. 'Well it's just a prototype,' she said, shrugging. 'But the theory is sound. I can't guarantee how it'll work in field conditions....'

'We'll risk it.' Grimm said, picking up his bike helmet. 'This is our best opportunity yet, and besides Maze, I want to be able to deal with the other half of the equation. Have it waiting at the drop-off point.'

'I'll send it by....' Jade started, but Grimm cut her off.

'Bring it _yourself_.' he said.

Jade's mouth fell open. 'What?' she said, looking scared. 'You mean.... _leave_ the lab??'

'Yes.' said Grimm firmly. 'This is too important to trust to a courier service or one of our contacts. I want you to deliver it personally.'

Jade sputtered, shaking her head. 'Grimm, I don't....'

'It's _important_, Jade.' he said, then he paused, looking away from the screen. 'Please.' he said, quickly and softly, as if he were afraid of being overheard.

Jade bit her lip, then with a nervous twitch, she said. 'Yeah... I'll be there.'

Grimm nodded. 'Thanks.' he said. 'Hopefully soon we'll have Rhonda back, and then we can _all_ go home.' he shut off the communicator and checked his outfit again before moving back into the main aisle through the cargo hold.

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Kim saw Grimm as he stepped around the stacks of baggage which were lashed down with straps and buckles, and she couldn't stop her fists from clenching. He was dressed in a form-fitting black suit lined with orange bands, the 'copy' of her battle-suit which Zorpox had made for Grimm. Seeing him in it brought back sharp memories of when Grimm had tricked her into believing that he had destroyed Ron's good side forever.

She forced herself to remember that this time they were working together, but it wasn't difficult to envision Grimm preparing to attack her instead checking the straps holding down his bike.

The Concorde lurched and the cargo bay contents rattled against their harnesses and restraints. The Sloth shuddered, but the shock absorbers took most of it. Grimm wobbled, but recovered and quickly buckled himself into the seat of the _Ksikkihkíni_. It wasn't long before they felt the g-forces of the aircraft taking off and the occasional tilting as it followed the turns needed to reach it's flight path and cruising height.

'It'll get below freezing.' said Kim. 'Will you be all right out there?'

'The suit will give me enough protection.' said Grimm. 'Jade's been fiddling with it a lot since you last saw it.'

'So why don't you use it all the time?' said Kim.

'Same reason you don't, I suppose.' said Grimm. 'I don't like relying on it when I don't need it, though I'm glad mine looks better than yours.'

Monique watched at Kim fell into a sulky silence. The temperature was dropping, and Kim put the windows back up before turning on the defrosters. There was silence for some time except for the sound of Kim's fingers drumming on the steering wheel.

There was a soft burst of static through the Sloth's speakers and Grimm's voice was piped in. 'Bite your lip any harder and you'll break the skin.' he said. 'Save it for Monkey Fist.'

Kim glared out the window to where Grimm sat with his helmet now on and a comlink button lit up on its side. Grimm's voice came in again. 'Are you enjoying happy memories of the last time we were both wearing these suits?' he said. 'That _was_ a blast.'

'You can think so.' said Kim in a low mutter.

'Bitter much?' said Grimm, 'Because the last time I wore this was when I was ripping your team a new one?'

Kim glared at him. 'Yeah.' she said.

Monique spoke from the side of her mouth to Wade. 'Uh... is there a window or something we can put up so we don't have to listen in?'

'Sorry.' Wade shrugged. 'Good idea though - I'll ask Jim and Tim....' But Grimm was still speaking.

'We can spar during the flight if you've still got issues to work out.' he said casually. 'But I don't think you'd do any better now than you did last time. We almost put an end to you when we blew the whistle on your tracking chip scheme.'

'As I recall, we _beat_ you.' Kim growled.

Grimm sounded resentful for a second. 'I admit I was surprised.' he said. 'I really thought he'd break up with you because of the chip. But you proved me wrong - or rather, _Ron_ proved me wrong.'

'And that's why you lost.' said Kim, a feeling of pride swelling in her. 'You underestimated Ron. He would never dump me over something like that.'

'That's because he's an exceptional guy.' Grimm answered. 'He's not nearly as mad at you as he ought be. In all the years that you've known him - has he ever done anything to willfully hurt you? He may be clumsy, ignorant and cheap - but he's never been motivated by spite. But how many times have you done things to hurt him? You've lied to him - you've ditched him - you've marginalized and criticized him at almost every level. And still he's stuck with you. Frankly, you don't deserve him.'

Monique could see Kim's face reddening, even in the rear view mirror, and saw her white gloved fingers trembling on the steering wheel. '_Really_ want that window now....' Monique said to Wade in a low, sing-song voice.

'Maybe I _will_ take you up on that sparring.' Kim said, and her voice was deadly cold.

'Why so touchy?' Grimm said. 'Do you think you did something grand because you decided to throw the poor little geek a bone? Give him the thrill of dating a foxy cheerleader - until you get tired of him and throw him back in the gutter? Real big of you Kim - _real_ big.'

'Where do you _get_ all this from?' Kim snapped. 'You're accusing me of things I haven't done and saying that I'm planning to do things that I'm _not_! Do you lie awake at night thinking up stuff you can say just to annoy me?'

'I don't have to think about it at all.' said Grimm. 'You're covered with buttons that are just screaming to be pushed. You make it too easy sometimes.'

Monique couldn't stand it any longer and broke in over Kim. 'Will you _shut_ _up_?' she said. 'We got at least four hours on this plane and I do _not_ want to spend it listening to your bad-boy psychobabble! Now stop acting like an immature kid!'

There was silence for a few seconds, then Grimm's voice piped in one quick message. 'She started it.' he said mischievously.

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Monkey Fist sat on the ground in the streets of Basalton. There were rough croaking sounds filling the air around him, but he tried to shut it out. Murders of crows were perched on the surrounding houses, or wheeling overhead in broad, sweeping circles. Maze stumped past him, followed by a clutch of petrified citizens. The shadow shaman paused. 'Must you do that _now_?' said Maze grimly. 'This will go faster if you collect our slaves as well.'

'There is no particular rush.' said Monkey Fist, and his voice was relaxed and calm. 'Drakken will warn us by communicator if the authorities approach, and by the time you have gone through the entire town, you should be ready to mask us again.'

Maze scowled. 'I fail to see the need for _you_ to rest.'

'This is not _resting_.' said Monkey Fist curtly. 'This is _meditation_. I have said many times that Tai Sheng Pek Kwar is also a mental exercise. Focus and concentration are key, and to summon them in any circumstance, they must be _practiced_ in any circumstance. Now if you don't mind....' And he went motionless, looking for all purposes as if he were nothing more than a sculpture set weirdly in the middle of the street.

Maze shook his head and made to turn away. But there was a flash of yellow light, and he turned again. Monkey Fist was flailing in mid-air as if something had tossed him, and he landed with a heavy clunk. He got up, staring curiously at his hand, where the mark of the Yono was flickering dimly.

'What was that?' said Maze.

'How very unexpected.' said Monkey Fist, as if talking to himself. 'And curious. It seems another of the Yono's abilities has manifest itself...'

'There are others?' said Maze, frowning. 'Why did you not speak of it?'

Monkey Fist frowned as well. 'My apologies, but when the Yono disappeared he did not leave me an instruction manual.'

Maze's frown became more pronounced and Monkey Fist sighed. 'The Yono displayed powers of levitation.' he said in a voice of forced patience. 'Sensei and many of the advanced students at Yamanouchi were able to achieve it as well. It would seem the Yono's power has awakened the ability in me....'

Maze raised his eyebrow. 'You are able... to _fly_?' he said.

'No,' said Monkey Fist, continuing to stare at the back of his hand. 'Only to hover. The Yono was able to move forward along the ground. Perhaps with practice...' He fell into silence for several minutes, then looked at Maze as if he had forgotten he was there.

'Continue collecting our new servants.' he said. 'While you do that... I will attempt to discover more.' Then he sat back down, returning to the Lotus position, while Maze moved silently down the street in search of more victims.

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There was a certain amount of gawking at Heathrow when workers on the tarmac and disembarking passengers saw the Sloth and the _Ksikkihkíni_ leaving the Concorde2's cargo ramp. Some people seemed to recognize the Sloth, pointing excitedly and a number of cell phone cameras snapped and clicked as they passed.

There was some staring at the _Ksikkihkíni_ and at Grimm, who kept his helmet on with the visor down. But the attention seemed only to have been given because he was following in Kim's wake. They threaded their way through the maze of connecting roads that led out of the airport. Grimm tapped his helmet communicator.

'Jade, I'm not seeing you.'

Jade's voice came through along with a heavy buzz of static. 'I'm still in transit G-man - another half an hour at least....'

Grimm tried to keep his voice calm. 'This could queer the whole deal.' he said. 'What's the holdup?'

'The _weather_.' Jade answered with heavy sarcasm. 'Ya know - that stuff I _can't_ control? There are heavy storm fronts all along the way.'

Grimm shook his head. 'We didn't have any trouble...' he started.

'Well if you'd waited for me at Middleton, maybe I could have gotten a seat on your luxury supersonic jet!'

'We were in the _cargo_ bay!' he said, and Rueful popped his head out of the insulated backpack, shivering exaggeratedly.

'Point is, you could reach a speed and height that I couldn't and avoid atmospheric conditions that I can't.' said Jade. 'Given that, you should be grateful I'm as close as I am! It could have been another few _hours_...'

'All right.' said Grimm grudgingly. 'But we can't wait at Heathrow any longer. I'm leaving the homing beacon on. Track me down wherever we wind up. I'll delay Monkey Fist and Maze as long as I can - I'm counting on you, Jade.'

'Yeah right, no pressure.' Jade said, then with a blip the link was disconnected.

By this time, they had made their way out of the airport and were moving towards the southern roads leading towards Stanwell. Kim saw Grimm signaling down one of the emptier streets and followed him until they were in a deserted alleyway.

As she lowered her window, Grimm flipped up his helmet visor. 'Here's where we split up.' he said. 'Wade showed us the general area in the countryside, but there's still a lot of ground to cover. I can do a lot more from the air.'

'You can't just fly that thing around!' said Kim. 'Setting aside that it's an unlicensed aircraft, we're supposed to be sneaking up on Monkey Fist - won't they see you coming?'

Grimm patted his shoulder where one of the orange bands was glowing dimly. 'Stealth mode. Jade added it a while after the Middleton caper.'

'And the _bike_?' said Monique, poking her nose out of the window as well. 'Be even more of a sore thumb flyin' around without a pilot.'

Grimm sniffed and gripped the handlebars of the _Ksikkihkíni _firmly. Several glowing bands of circuitry seemed to spread out around his hands and fingers, and corresponding bands rippled out across the bike for a few seconds, then both the bike and Grimm faded from view until they were discernable only as a rippling distortion in the air like heat haze.

'Sweeeeeet.....' said Wade, practically drooling on the window until a hard stare from Kim sent him leaning back into his seat.

'I'll start on the east end of the target area, you guys hit the west and we'll work our way towards the middle.' said Grimm. Kim saw a puff of dust along the ground and heard a faint, high pitched mechanical whine which grew fainter until it faded from hearing. Kim had to admit, the stealth mode worked well. She could see the rippling distortion rising, but as the _Ksikkihkíni_ rose up, it blended into the surrounding air. If she hadn't known it was there, she would never have realized it.

She quickly got back onto the roads and drove the Sloth towards the countryside expanse which was highlighted on the dashboard display screen.

'How come you never did that for Kim's car?' Monique said, and Wade looked suddenly flustered.

'I've had tons of issues just getting Kim's suit working without glitches.' he said. 'I haven't had time to add things like linking feature compatibility with a vehicle.'

'_They_ did.' said Monique, nodding her head in the direction where the _Ksikkihkíni _had disappeared. 'What did they do to fix their suit?'

Wade dithered for a second, then said answered. 'Jade is _not_ better than me!'

Monique stared. 'Uh.... I didn't say she _was_.' she said warily.

Wade looked away as if staring at something out of the window. 'Well... good, because she's _not_.' he said.

Looking at Wade sulking, Monique couldn't suppress a smile. Wade didn't seem to have many pet peeves, but it seemed he did pride himself in being the best.

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Maze returned to the town square, with nearly forty statues following after him, stone victims ranging in age, size and body type. He could not see Monkey Fist, and looked around in silent confusion for a moment.

He stepped back in surprise as a glowing flash of yellow scudded from one side of the street to the other, plowing into the side of a house. There was a noise of clattering wood and a crumble of dust as a portion of the wall splintered and collapsed. Monkey Fist emerged through a gaping hole a few seconds later, looking both pleased and embarrassed.

'Meditation and inner focus seem to be the key to this power.' he said, dusting himself off.

Maze looked at the damaged house and noted several other houses had similar holes in them. 'It seems you have not achieved _total_ focus.' he said dryly. 'Perhaps we should move outside of the town. The fewer signs we leave of our presence, the better.'

Monkey Fist nodded curtly and they trooped though the alleys between houses to the rocky areas behind the town. A large cliff wall loomed up behind Basalton a short distance away. 'A moment's pause before we depart.' he said. 'I would like a few more attempts, to refine my control in an open setting before we return to the lair.'

Maze looked around. All was quiet. He could see no sign of any cars on the roads in the distance, and no one else within sight. But his mind was uneasy. The crows perched on the gables and roofs of the houses a short distance away, their rough cawing cries breaking the stillness. They seemed nervous, and consequently, so did he. 'Very well, but be quick.' he said. 'I think we have lingered here too long already....'

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Kim sped down the roads, passing a variety of different country sides. There were pastures surrounded by rock walls, rolling hills in some areas, wooded patches in others, and green mountainsides in others. England had the overall feeling of a geographical quilt. But like a real quilt, the different pieces formed a pleasant and somehow unified whole.

The charm of it was largely lost on Kim at the moment. She was concentrating on driving on the correct side of the road, and also listening for Wade's constant feeding of data, and Grimm's occasional updates. They had reached the area which Wade had identified when he had detected the hijacking of a satellite through the Jammer. But since then he had detected nothing further. And unfortunately, the 'area' was over thirty square kilometers. Kim was anxious and feeling pressured, not sure how long Monkey Fist and Maze might remain in that area, or even whether or not they had already left. She sighed impatiently.

'Don't panic, there are still things we can do to find them.' said Wade reassuringly.

'Then now might be a good time to use them...' Kim said.

There was a buzz from the car speakers and Grimm spoke. 'Yeah, really.' he said. 'I'm not seeing anything unusual so far. You're sure about the coordinates you mapped?' he said.

Wade sounded offended. 'Don't worry, it's good intel.' he said.

'As opposed to the _evil_ intel I normally use...' Grimm said.

'Will you _shut up_?' Kim snapped. 'That joke is like _so_ played!'

'Oh.' said Grimm, and there was a smirk in his voice as if he had been waiting for Kim to say that. 'Then I guess you and the joke have something in common.'

'Uh, there are only a few towns in the area I mapped out.' said Wade, hastily speaking over Kim's angry growl.

'Fine, let's go with what we know.' said Grimm's. 'You said Monkey Fist and Maze targeted another town - Graniton. Why there?'

'It was a small town.' Kim said. 'Only a few houses and businesses, out of the way and not contacted very often....'

'Something no one would fuss over much if it disappeared.' Grimm said. 'Meaning that Monkey Fist is still trying to avoid drawing too much attention. Do any of the towns in the area we're searching share the same characteristics?'

'There's Basalton.' said Wade, punching keys on his laptop. 'It's a little bigger than Graniton though, nearly double the population. Of course as small as Graniton was, that's not saying much...'

'Basalton's just a few minutes away as the eagle flies, I'll check it out.' said Grimm. 'But in case I'm wrong, keep scanning for other likely targets.' Then the speakers buzzed and went silent.

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Grimm reached Basalton very quickly, making a bee-line straight for it. Even in his haste, he didn't forget his cautionary training. As he saw the town distantly, a small patch of houses amidst a nearly barren countryside, he lowered his altitude and double-checked his stealth mode gauges.

As he drew nearer, he could tell that he'd struck gold. He swooped the bike low and silent over the rooftops, and saw nearly every house had the front door wide open, but there was no sign of anyone on the streets.

His eye caught a dark spiral in the air on the far side of Basalton, and he circled his bike around cautiously. He saw the darkness was actually a flock of black crows circling around, and as he arched his path around the fields outside the city, he saw a number of figures standing in a cluster in the rocky tors between the town and a series of ragged cliffsides, some leading up, others leading down into deep ravines and gullies.

Grimm quickly tapped his helmet comlink. 'They're here.' he said simply, spying the blur of a brown cloak around one of the distant figures. 'How fast can you...'

'Activating booster jets.' said Kim. 'We'll be there in less than four minutes. Anything you can do to keep them distracted until we arrive, go right ahead with it.'

Grimm checked the dashboard to verify that the items Jade had stowed before he went to Middleton were primed and ready. Then he swept back overhead. Two minutes ticked by and he kept a close eye on the figures below. They didn't appear to be getting ready to move. After the third minute, he went into a dive, steering his course right over the figures on the ground.

_'All right, shadow-shaman,' _Grimm thought. _'Let's see how you like this....'_

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Maze had been impatiently watching Monkey Fist cycle through periods of meditation, with periodic fits and starts from his new ability being triggered. He heard several agitated croaks and saw several crows take flight. He looked up at the sky, but saw nothing. 'We are no longer alone, _Maokiiwa_.' he said quietly.

Monkey Fist nodded. Then he saw something falling down from above, and landing only a few feet away. It looked like a silvery, metallic ball.

_'Look out!_' Monkey Fist shouted. The ball let out a muffled _whump_ sound and there was a blazing explosion of solid white light.

Maze fell backwards, clutching at his eyes, too late in turning away from the flashbang pod. Monkey Fist reached him and was lifting him up when he saw something else. A streak of garish pink arched from the horizon and down onto the road leading into Basalton. In a few short seconds, a car with what appeared to be jet engines jutting out of the trunk came to a screeching halt, and a figure was racing towards them, her white outfit standing out like a beacon against the stony landscape.

'Kim Possible.' said Monkey Fist, and the annoyance in his voice was plain. 'You really do make even the simplest of tasks into something difficult and irritating.'

'Anything for an old friend, _Monty_.' she answered, squaring off with him.

Monique and Wade kept their distance, and for the moment Monkey Fist had eyes only for Kim. 'So... what do _we_ do?' Monique whispered.

Wade was looking at the sky nervously. 'Jade was supposed to come here with something to help us in the fight.' he said. 'Fine time to be late!'

'And no sign of Mr. Bad-Boy either.' said Monique. 'Think it was a set-up?'

Wade looked suddenly suspicious. 'I hadn't considered that.' he said. 'This _is_ a mercenary we're talking about....'

Monkey Fist snapped his fingers and nearly twenty statues stumped forward. 'You fled the last time, Possible,' he said, 'And this time the odds are even more slanted in my favor.'

'I'm all about defying the odds!' Kim said, smiling. She had taken in the situation at a glance and saw that Maze was still dazed. At a gesture from Monkey Fist, the statues surged forward.

Kim took a more measured approach than she had last time. She knew she couldn't harm them, but she remembered the statues seemed to take a few seconds to get back to their feet when they were knocked over. She focused on foot sweeps and pivot tosses, trying to keep as many of them off balance as she could. By raising her shield at the same moment as her strikes, she was able to cycle through their numbers, keeping half of them flattened while dueling with the rest.

But her real goal was Monkey Fist, and she needed to get through all of his petrified victims to reach him. While she fought, Monkey Fist ordered some of the remaining statues to guard Maze, and sent the rest to try and outflank Kim by circling around the battle to attack from the other side.

Monique and Wade saw the approaching gang. 'Uh...' said Monique, her hands hanging slack at her sides. 'They're coming _closer_. Have we got a plan for that?'

'The plan was supposed to be Jade!' Wade said, and he was backing slowly away from the statues. 'None of the stuff I used last time worked on them!'

'Then let's try something a little more low-tech.' said Monique, joining him in stepping backwards.

'Such as....?'

_'Run!!!'_

Monkey Fist was momentarily distracted by the sight of a pair of retreating figures. He saw them vanish behind one of the houses. _'So, Possible - you didn't come alone.'_ he thought. He circled around the battle and ordered the other statues to pursue them, and they lumbered towards Basalton.

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While the fight raged around him, Maze knelt on the rocky ground, blinking and shaking his head. Slowly his vision began to clear and the starbursts in front of his eyes subsided. He got to his feet and lifted his staff, catching a fuzzy and unclear view of the battle.

The statues were fighting Kim, and she was holding them off while Monkey Fist directed them. They seemed to be paying no heed to Maze. He gripped his staff and concentrated, focusing on the shadows of the nearby cliffs while keeping Kim in his sight. He needed only to take control of her and the fight was theirs...

_Sipimottakiksi, Sipimottakiksi,  
Nikaahtomaana nitaanistsi'toyiiwa...._

Even as he chanted, Maze saw a distorted, ripping blur which weaved through his petrified guards and flashed in front of him. He fell back with a cry, tumbling across the dusty ground. He tried struggling to his feet, but something lashed across his waist. Before he could react, he was sailing upwards towards the top of the rocky cliff, a dizzying rise of nearly forty feet.

Kim saw what looked like a bundle of brown rags soaring up, and knew it was Maze. She gritted her teeth as she fought. It looked like Grimm had cornered Maze at last. She desperately wanted to leave the fight and follow after Grimm, because she didn't trust him to question Maze without resorting to violence.

But the statues were relentless, and there were more of them than there were last time. It was all she could do to fend them off. She resigned herself to the fact that Grimm would have an unrestrained hand just like he wanted. _'Don't make me regret this!'_ she thought.

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Maze was thrown down in another rolling tumble, coming to a stop several feet from the edge of the small cliff. The rippling shape in front of him darkened, and he saw a boy wearing a black suit with glowing orange bands standing before him.

'_Otaatoyiwa_.' said Maze, wincing as he fought to rise up. He gripped his staff, trying to raise it.

Grimm darted forward and kicked. The staff spun away several feet. 'It's time we had a chat, _Sskipoyiwa_.' he growled. 'Away from prying eyes and away from your guard dogs.' He walked around until Maze was between him and the cliffside.

Maze glanced around, but there was no way around him. 'Well - here I am.' he said mockingly. 'What troubles the mind of the cunning fox?'

Grimm pushed Maze a foot back, closer to the cliff edge. 'I want you to bring Rhonda back.' he said.

Maze laughed. 'Impossible.' he said. 'Just as you did back at Kwitcherbeliakin, you have journeyed a long way to accomplish nothing.'

'It's not impossible!' Grimm shouted. 'You banished her - you can call her back!'

'And why _would_ I?' Maze said. 'I swore I would make her pay when she stole the power of the Great Bear from my very grasp!'

'Rhonda didn't _steal_ anything.' Grimm snarled. 'The Great Bear chose her because even _he _couldn't stand you!'

Maze sputtered a string of guttural syllables, a look of pure rage on his face. 'Watch your mouth!' said Grimm. 'And stop looking around for help! Your statues won't get here in time to save you, and you can't work your shadow magic as long as I can stop you from chanting. If you want to walk away from this, you'll have to deal with _me_.'

'And if I refuse?' said Maze, then he lurched back almost to the edge of the cliff as Grimm pushed him again.

'Then you'd better hope you can raise your shadow barrier in two and a half seconds.' he said, smirking. 'Because you'll hit the bottom of that cliff in_ three_.'

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Monique lost track of how many houses she weaved around, dashed through and threaded between. She and Wade had become separated in their dash through the Basalton streets. She hoped he was all right, and figured he had enough experience on missions with Kim that he was better off than she was.

_'Some sidekick.'_ she thought. _'Run? Was that the best I could come up with?'_ But she reasoned that at least she had drawn some of the statues away from the fight, meaning Kim didn't have to face the whole army of them by herself. _'What could I do to beat up a statue anyway?'_

After a harrowing few minutes of cat-and-mouse with her pursuers, she looked behind her and could see no one. _'Lost 'em!'_ she thought. _'You go, girl!_' Then she looked in front of her and saw that she was back where she had started, just outside the town and looking at Kim fighting the other statues. She seemed to be doing all right, though it also seemed she was only just staying ahead of being dog-piled. She caught a fleeting glimpse of Rufus dangling half out of her hip pouch.

Then she slowly looked to the side, and realized that Monkey Fist was standing only a few feet away from her. Monique felt a cold chill as Monkey Fist's attention was drawn away from the battle and he turned his gray eyes on her. 'Well...' he said with a voice both curious and amused. 'This is something new. I wasn't aware the _cheer squad_ had a second string.'

'Uh...' said Monique, looking wildly around. 'I'm more like their fashion consultant.'

'Truly?' said Monkey Fist, seeming amused. 'What a shame. I find I have little use for fashion these days - I'm into function rather than form.'

Monique winced. _'May as well make a good showing.'_ she thought. Then with her best kung-fu yell, she lashed out with her fist. Pain exploded in her fingers at the impact. It was like punching a brick wall. Monkey Fist didn't even flinch, still looking at her with an amused smirk.

'Ow!' said Monique, staggering backwards and clutching her agonized hand. 'Ow, ow, _ow_!'

Monkey Fist mimed a yawn. 'Obviously you don't do this very often.' he said. 'Too bad for you.'

Monique turned and dashed away from him, hoping to draw him away from Kim and lose him in Basalton as she had with the other statues. She chose a different path though, coming to the end of one house in the lane.

But she stopped suddenly, looking down a sheer cliff. She stood in amazement, looking at the house, the backyard seeming to end at the cliffside. _'What kind of idiot builds a house on the edge of a cliff?'_ she thought. She turned to head back another way, but there was a flash of yellow light, and Monkey Fist was suddenly standing right in front of her.

'Possible seems to be slipping.' said Monkey Fist calmly, the glow fading. 'I would have expected her to bring along someone a little more competent and a little less cowardly. Then again, she did put up with the buffoon for all that time. I suppose you're merely buffoon 2.0.'

Monique stumbled as her heel slipped against the edge of the cliff, sending a shower of pebbles falling into the abyss. She put her hands up, smiling weakly while her heart pounded in fear. 'Come on,' she said. 'Can't we all just... _get along_?'

'My dear girl,' said Monkey Fist, shaking his head. 'I once ordered my monkey ninjas to throw a _baby_ into a pool of molten lava along with the buffoon and a sack of flour. What do you think I'll do to _you_?'

Before Monique could answer, Monkey Fist had her collar in his grip and was hoisting her up, extending his arm over the edge. Monique looked down and immediately knew why people who were traversing great heights were advised _not_ to look. Her vision swam and the ground far below seemed to be sinking down even further as she panicked. She looked into Monkey Fist's pitiless face.

'I would say, _choose your friends more wisely next time_, but... well.' he said. Then he pushed out and cast her over the edge.

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Kim heard a shrill scream and saw Monique falling over the edge. _'No!'_ she shouted. She activated her booster soles and sailed up and over the statues, catching a fleeting glimpse of Monkey Fist staring balefully at her. Then she was falling over the cliff herself, firing her grapple line downwards and to the side. She saw Monique, a flailing figure spiraling towards the rocky ground below.

Her line went taut and she eased into her swing, using her booster soles to speed her descent. She shot below Monique and reached out her arm.

'Go limp - I've got you!' she shouted, feeling Monique still struggling in her arms. She pulled on the line and felt her arm strain, but she gritted her teeth and ignored the pain. The fall shifted from down to sideways as they reached the base of their swing, skimming along mere inches above the ground and at the end of the arc, Kim retracted the line and they both came to a skidding stop near the base of the cliff wall.

Monique was panting and shivering, looking around like she could hardly believe her eyes, and she sank to her knees.

'Are you all right?' Kim said, kneeling in front of her and putting a hand on her shoulder.

Monique waved, nodding her head feebly as she took in another breath. 'Yeah - fine.' she said, though her voice shook. 'Just... give him one from me.'

Kim glared back up to the top of the cliff. 'You got it.' she said. 'Stay here Mon, you've earned a break.'

Monique looked up as Kim launched her grapple line again and began ascending back up the cliff wall. Once she was out of sight, Monique buried her face in her hands. _'Yeah... some sidekick...'_ she thought.

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Monkey Fist saw a white flash as Kim threw herself over the cliff after her friend. He scowled and considered jumping down after them. But he glanced back and saw Maze was gone. He looked around, then up, and saw him standing near the edge of another cliff further up the rise. He also saw a black silhouette standing behind Maze - a figure with spiked auburn hair.

_'Probable?'_ he thought, his eyes narrowing. _'Working with Possible? We can't have that!'_ Several statues were plodding up the pathway leading to the cliff, but it was clear that their ascent would take time.

He concentrated, going through his meditation routines, and felt the sensation of lightness again. He maintained his focus and leaned forward, speeding across the ground and up the winding slope of the cliff towards Maze.

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'I'm waiting!' said Grimm, looking as menacing as he could. 'Bring Rhonda back or I'll send you to join her _without_ your body!'

Maze looked at him as if considering. Then at last he spoke. 'The truth would cause you tremendous pain _Otaatoyiwa._' he said with a strange smile. 'So I do not mind sharing it with you. The shadow-medicine which banished _Katasistsikoowa_ cannot be undone. Even if I wanted to, I could not return her to this world.'

The attack came so swiftly that Maze barely saw it. He had no time to raise the shadow-barrier. In a blur of strikes, Grimm swept his feet out from under him and struck him hard, sending him sprawling backwards and nearly over the edge. Grimm had him by the throat barely an instant later, his face twisted with rage. '_You're lying_!' he snarled, his fist raised to strike again.

Maze did not blench, but looked defiantly back at Grimm, a smile lurking behind the pain as he winced and growled back at him. 'Look into my eyes, _Otaatoyiwa _-_ I cannot bring them back_!'

Grimm stared into the fathomless pools of Maze's eyes. And try as he might, he could find no deception in them. His face fell in stricken denial, his grip on Maze's cloak slackened.

There was a yellow flash as Monkey Fist charged from the left, plowing into Grimm and sending him reeling. Grimm rolled and got up again, limping slightly. Monkey Fist raised Maze back to his feet and smiled at Grimm. 'So sorry I was late.' he said. Grimm went into a fighting stance, and Monkey Fist chuckled. 'I suggest you stand down, Probable. I have no wish to harm you.'

'You can go if you want to.' said Grimm. 'But Maze's _not_ walking away from this.'

'I rather think he will, Probable.' said Monkey Fist. 'No offense to your tenacity, but my plans for global domination depend on his assistance.'

Grimm advanced with his arms poised. 'Then we've got a problem.' he said.

Monkey Fist went into a mirror stance. 'I see no problem.' he said. 'But by all means, make the first move if you wish.'

Grimm charged forward and Monkey Fist was ready to block him, but at the last moment Grimm pivoted and spun around Monkey Fist in a graceful side-step. He leaped at Maze, who raised his staff.

But before Grimm reached him, he stopped in mid-leap. Monkey Fist's fingers were curled around his ankle and he turned, swinging Grimm around in a sweeping toss. Grimm neatly landed in a handspring and rolled to his feet, turning to face them again. Monkey Fist sank into a crouch, smiling and twitching his fingers at him.

Grimm frowned and charged again. He knew Monkey Fist wouldn't fall for a feint twice in a row. They clashed in a series of strikes and blocks. The battle-suit gave Grimm a much better edge than when they had fought in the UNIT labs, though his blows still seemed ineffectual against Monkey Fist. But as Monkey Fist struck back, he was glad for the suit's shield capabilities.

There was a flash of orange and his fist was halted in mid-flight. He struggled to punch through, but his arm was held back with several sparking flashes. 'How original.' said Monkey Fist dryly. 'I see you haven't changed from your time as my trainee. Always taking other people's ideas and trying to make them your own!'

'No, I just make them _better_.' Grimm said. The shield dropped and he activated his booster soles, leaping over Monkey Fist and straight down at Maze. But he saw Maze chanting, and as he descended, he saw a thin bubble like misty shadow surrounding him.

Grimm landed on a barrier of darkness that covered Maze like a dome. He rolled with the impact, getting to his feet on the rocky ground, then he struck at the shadow barrier several times with his fists. From within the barrier, Maze stared out at him, smirking.

'You are not the only one who has the means to protect himself, _Otaatoyiwa_.' he said.

Grimm snarled. The fight had given Maze enough time to raise his barrier, and he knew he couldn't get through it with physical strength. He moved back and held up his right arm, activating a module within the suit. The material and micro-circuitry around his hand warped and transformed, forming a protrusion similar to a gun barrel. He remembered when Jade had modified the suit after they got home from the Zorpox incident.

_'Really, G-man, that hand thingy has got to go!' she had said._

_'Why?' he answered. 'It captures incoming energy attacks and lets the person throw it back at the user. You know my modus operandi - I could go for that.'_

_'It looks like you're playing jai-ali in the world of TRON.' Jade sniffed. 'Besides, most of your enemies expect the 'turnabout' thing from you. It'll be more practical if you can generate your own energy attacks and throw 'em for a loop!'_

_'So what are you suggesting?' said Grimm._

_Jade rubbed her hands together. 'Something Obi-Wan would call 'clumsy and random'.'_

Grimm took careful aim with the hand module and fired. Jade had called it a 'Needler', which could fire an energy pulse strong enough to stun a fully grown man on the spot. A pencil-thin beam of glowing orange struck the shadow barrier, but the beam exploded in a flash of light, unable to penetrate the shadows. Grimm fired again and again, circling the shadow barrier, but although Maze flinched on the first shot, he seemed to gain confidence. He actually laughed on seeing Grimm's frustrated efforts.

Grimm paused, stymied, and not sure what to do next. Then he saw a movement of something gray from off to the side. He raised his shield just before Monkey Fist slammed into it. He dug his heels into the rocky ground, being slowly pushed back.

'Enough, Probable!' Monkey Fist said, his face looking angry. 'You were a promising student, but you have no chance against our combined power!'

'You didn't have to take Rhonda!' he hissed. 'We would have _helped_ you!'

'Grow _up_!' Monkey Fist said. 'It was nothing personal!'

'You _made_ it personal!' Grimm shouted. Then he lowered the shield and copied one of Rhonda's judo tosses, thinking it appropriate to use them against the ones who had banished her. Monkey Fist was flung forward and crashed into a nearby boulder. But he was up only a second later, and the two continued their duel.

They ranged back and forth for several minutes. Grimm was unable to harm Monkey Fist, but Monkey Fist seemed unable to break the battle-suit's shield and the fight seemed to be going nowhere. Until Grimm heard Monkey Fist chanting softly from within the shadow-barrier.

_Sipimottakiksi, Sipimottakiksi,  
Nikaahtomaana nimaataakaniiwa!_

And Grimm saw his own vision dimming. A misty dome of shadow was covering him. He threw his shoulder against the barrier, but it seemed just as solid to him from within as Maze's had been from the outside. He hammered against it, but there was no give or any discernable holes.

Monkey Fist stepped back, regarding Grimm as he fought against the shadow-barrier. He turned to Maze, who was emerging from his own protective dome. 'Well done.' said Maze, looking at Grimm as if he were an exhibit in a zoo. 'Your battle provided the distraction I needed to use the shadows as a reverse prison.'

Monkey Fist nodded 'And your barrier should hold this troublesome fly still long enough for me to deliver the _coup de grace_.' He stared at Grimm and said. 'Probable - your interference is making me _angry_!' He held up his arm, and the mark of the Yono on the back of his hand glowed a piercing yellow.

Grimm saw a burst of light. He diverted all the suit's power to the shield, but the destructive blast still burst it open like a plastic bubble. He felt strain and pressure on each of his limbs. He was flung backwards, landing and tumbling across the dusty, rocky ground until he came to a stop near the cliff edge.

Monkey Fist sighed, the weariness that came when he used his powers was still strong, but he resisted it with effort. 'Well,' he said. 'That should do it. Let us return to the battle below. There is still Kim Possible to deal with.'

He and Maze turned to leave, but Maze halted, feeling something around his ankle. Grimm had crawled forward, his eyes nearly shut with pain, and a streak of wetness rolling down his cheek. His suit sparked in places, though the nano-fibers were already knitting together in others. Grimm looked up at the shadow-shaman, his body trembling, his teeth gritted.

'Please...!' he grated. 'I need her back...!'

Maze sneered and kicked, sending Grimm rolling to his side with a sharp groan. Grimm leaned, trying to struggle to his feet, but stopped as he felt a sharp point at his throat. Maze had taken his staff, and was holding the clawed tip down like a spear. He stared down at Grimm, and there was triumph on his face at the sight of his enemy lying helpless at his feet. 'Is this what it means to love, _Otaatoyiwa_?' he said, his eyes glittering. 'To be so dependent on the mere presence of another person that without them you crumble into dust? If that is the weakness which love engenders - then you can keep it!'

He kicked him again, and Grimm laid face down in the dirt, his hands clenched and his head bowed. Monkey Fist paused as Maze joined him on the path leading down to the main battle. 'It would be a simple matter to finish him.' he said casually.

'Leave him.' said Maze, and the contempt and satisfaction in his voice was palpable. 'His spirit and his heart are broken. And I have no wish to _end_ his suffering.' Then he turned and strode down the path, his cloak billowing behind him.

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Wade puffed and heaved as he struggled to keep ahead of the advancing statues. He had made it out of Basalton and was near the base of another cliff wall. It wasn't too high, but certainly nothing that he could scale without a grapple line. _'This is whack!'_ he thought. _'I should be at home drinking a soda right now, not running for my life from a gang of walking statues!'_

He risked a look behind him and wished that he hadn't. It was just like a cheesy horror movie where the hero spent hours running from the killer, only to look behind them and find the killer was still right there.

Wade saw at least three pairs of stone hands reaching out for him and hid his eyes. There was a weird squelching, splattering sound and he flinched. But the expected pain didn't come. He slowly opened one eye, then the other, and instead of the approaching statues, he saw a greyish-white mass. A stone hand was poking out of what looked like a blob of expanding foam. The hand groped and snatched at Wade, but the foam seemed to be restraining it.

'You just can't stay out of trouble, can you Wadey?'

Wade looked up. Silhouetted against the cloudy sky was a hovering disk-shaped platform. It looked like one of the turbines that was attached to the _Ksikkihkíni_, but there was no vehicle, only a steering column. And standing on the platform was a skinny girl with an Asian complexion and her hair pulled into two ponytails. She was wearing elbow and kneepads, and a pair of laboratory goggles were pushed up on her forehead. A bulky pack was strapped onto her back, and a tube led from the pack to a large gun which was slung onto her shoulder.

Jade stared down at him with a superior smirk as she cocked the gun and fired. Wade instinctively ducked, but the whitish mass the gun fired from it's blunderbuss-style barrel splattered against another statue, which had been advancing from the side. The gooey substance seemed like paint at first, but it inflated and expanded until it became a thick, rubbery cocoon.

'How 'bout a lift?' she said, tipping her goggles.

'Not arguing.' said Wade, stepping away from the statue, which flailed and twisted in it's pillowy prison.

The hovering platform lowered and Jade grinned, looking over the trapped statues and seeming exceptionally smug. 'You can ride shotgun, Wadey,' she said, tossing him the gun. 'Steering this thing while shooting can be a pain!'

Wade saw another approaching clutch of statues and hastily clambered onto the platform. He was embarrassed, because there were no straps or restraints that he could see, and he had to put an arm around Jade's waist to hold onto anything.

'Fresh!' she said playfully, and Wade almost let go in his shyness, but as the platform shot up and the ground became distant, he gritted his teeth and held on even tighter, fumbling to keep a firm hold on the gun.

Jade swooped down and lowered, going into a spinning sweep just above the ground through the midst of a group of ten statues. Wade took the hint and fired. He managed to hit two of the statues, which were quickly enveloped in the sticky foam which expanded into an orb-like mass in which they twitched helplessly. Jade laughed high and shrill, her voice sounding exhilarated. '_Stick _around, guys!' she squealed.

'What _is_ this thing?' Wade said over the wind which whistled past his ears. He gripped hard again as Jade spun the platform around like a top, arching by for another pass at the statues.

'Isn't it great?' Jade said. 'It fires a mass of expanding pellets with self-adhesive properties, similar to Dementor's Bond-O balls! The foam is strong enough to hold the target in place, but pliable enough that they can't tear it or break it - I call it the Moo Goo Guy Gun!'

Wade winced, but took careful aim and struck another statue in the chest, watching as it struggled and flailed in it's attempts to wrench free of the foam. 'Didn't you rip off the idea from _The Incredibles_?' he shouted.

Jade shrugged. 'Hey, a good idea is a good idea.' she said, and she whooped loudly as Wade hit another statue. 'Man, if I'd known field work was this much fun I'd have stepped out ages ago!'

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Monkey Fist stared up at the darting and wheeling platform, then down at the statues which were trapped and helpless. Maze also reached the bottom of the cliff path and looked at what was happening. He glared angrily. _'Do something!'_ he said.

Monkey Fist spied a pile of loose boulders and rocks at the base of the cliff, a jumbled mass formed by untold years of erosion. He selected one that was nearly half his own size and hefted it. 'It's been a while since my college days,' he said. 'But let us see if I can still do shotput...'

He spun in place, heaved and thrust out his arm. The boulder soared up, heading straight at the hover platform.

Jade was still whooping as she spun in place about ten feet from the ground, letting Wade rain shots from the Moo Goo Guy Gun down on the statues which milled beneath them, but were unable to reach them. They had plastered nearly ten of them, effectively removing them from the fight.

Wade hated to admit it, but the gun seemed to be just the thing to counter the statues strength and durability. He was selecting another target and was just about to ask Jade how many shots the gun could make before running out. But he saw a swift, approaching shadow and gasped.

_'Jade, look out!'_

Jade saw it barely an instant after Wade did. She tilted the platform and leaned the repulsion field so it pointed out at the approaching boulder. It worked in that the boulder was reflected, but at the same time, the repulsion from a much closer object sent a sudden burst of acceleration into the disc and the platform spun out of control.

Unable to hold on, Wade felt himself fly off, and also felt the tube connecting the gun to the pack on Jade's back tear in half, the gun still firm in his grip.

They both landed and tumbled on the ground, the hover platform banged and clattered, the steering column snapping off while the disc hummed loudly for a moment and then fell silent.

Groaning, Wade leaned up and saw Monkey Fist and Maze standing in front of them. Jade sat up, her goggles askew, inspecting several scrapes and cuts on her palms and arms. 'Ow...' she said. 'That _tanked_.'

'You have no idea.' said Monkey Fist, glaring down at the two. Statues were walking slowly up behind them.

'Yo, Monty.' said Jade, sitting up and pushing her goggles back. 'Long time no see!' Monkey Fist started at her, his eyebrow raised. 'Oh that's right, we've _never_ met.' Jade said. Then she popped loose a smaller protrusion from her backpack, which looked like a pistol-sized version of the larger gun. A stream of the white goo splattered on Monkey Fist's head and he reeled back, scrabbling at his face.

Wade almost laughed, because it soon looked as if Monkey Fist was staggering around with a giant marshmallow around his head. Wade pulled Jade forward and dashed madly towards the town, ducking around one of the houses behind the outskirts of Basalton.

They panted, peeking around the corner, but Monkey Fist was still struggling to pull the foam off while Maze was looking at him as if not sure what to do, and the statues were all standing still as if waiting for orders. 'You got the big one?' Jade said.

'Yeah,' said Wade, hefting the larger Moo Goo Guy Gun.

'We need to fix it.' she said, unslinging the pack from her shoulders and letting it fall with a thunk onto the porch of the house where they stood. 'The Moo Goo Guy pistol doesn't generate enough volume to stop a full sized statue.'

'Got any tools?' said Wade, looking at the torn tube leading into the gun stock and the torn tube meant to connect it to the tank.

Jade looked flustered. 'Uh.... they were all on the hover platform.' she said.

Wade checked his belt pouches, but all the items in them were geared for working with circuitry, not plumbing. He turned his eyes to the surrounding vacant houses. 'Better rustle up some duct tape then.' he said.

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Maze watched in surprise and shock as the strange white substance encased the head of his ally. And as he tried to think of a way to remove it, other thoughts raced into his mind. _'How did they find us? How did they know we would be here? And how did they develop these weapons?'_

Monkey Fist soon raised a hand, gesturing Maze to stand back. Maze moved away from him, confused. Monkey Fist's hands were clenched and his body trembled while the mark of the Yono flared on his hand.

A yellow explosion of light burst around him. The foam covering his head flew apart, but he also seemed to lose balance, falling backwards clumsily. He was struggling to his feet a second later, looking furious. He seemed ready to return to the battle, but Maze held out his staff.

We must go.' he said. 'Quickly - before they call in any others.'

Monkey Fist nodded resentfully. 'I'm too weak now to destroy whatever they used on our servants.' he said. 'We'll have to take them back to the lair as they are and have the others carry them.' Maze nodded and snapped his fingers. Several of the statues came to him and they moved towards the others who were trapped in foam and standing out on the rocky plain like bizarre mushrooms.

There was a sudden ripple, then a flash of white. Kim Possible emerged from her stealth mode and charged from the side, heading straight at Maze. Kim had reached the top of the cliff after seeing to Monique, and seen Wade and Jade's fight against the statues and their flight from Monkey Fist after the crash.

But seeing Maze and Monkey Fist together troubled her. Whatever had happened between Maze and Grimm, it looked as if Grimm had failed. She made a mental note to gloat about it later as she quickly dropped into stealth mode and moved into position. If she could capture Maze, she could take him to Global Justice for questioning.

But as she reached for him, Monkey Fist leaned and darted in, taking the blow that was intended for Maze. 'Keep gathering our servants!' he called to Maze. 'I will handle her!'

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Grimm remained on the top of the cliff, looking down at the battle. To his eyes it was now nothing but meaningless bustle. The fight no longer mattered - nothing mattered. He was sure Maze wasn't lying. His last plan for bringing Rhonda back had failed, had been a failure from the very start. There was no hope of ever returning her to the world, no hope of ever seeing her again....

_'Is this what it means to love? To be so dependent on the mere presence of another that without them you crumble into dust?'_

Dust and ashes. The Great Bear was ignoring him. Maze's curse could not be broken. There was no point to anything he tried anymore. Even if they won the battle, it would accomplish nothing. All was dust and ashes.

He gritted his teeth. Then he took off his pack and opened it, easing Rueful out onto the ground. 'Get back to the bike, little guy.' he said. 'Hit the emergency auto-pilot and it'll take you back home.' Rueful cocked his head, and squeaked in confusion.

'Go on, _move_.' he said. 'There's something I need to do.' And Rueful looked even more confused as Grimm ran down the path leading to the battle.

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_Rhonda stared out at the endless void that surrounded her and Ron. 'Ok....' she said to Ron. 'I spy... with my little eye.... something.... curly.'_

_'Ooooh! Ooooh!' said Ron, shaking his hands eagerly. 'Is it weird spirit misty stuff?'_

_Rhonda grimaced. 'Not again!' she said, looking frustrated. 'That's the fifth time in a row! Let's play something else, there's nothing BUT weird spirit misty stuff here!'_

_Then she gasped. Sudden and unexpected, the mists around her seemed to fade and she was standing in what looked like a rocky landscape. Everything seemed somehow colorless, blurred and out of focus. She looked around wildly, wondering if she was about to see Grimm again, but there was no sign of him. Even Ron seemed to have faded from view._

_Then there was a chittering squeal, and a flash of slithering brown fur darted past her, scurrying down some kind of path. 'Rueful!' she shouted, and to her surprise, the weasel stopped, nearly rolling over and looked straight at her. A joyed expression seemed to break over Rueful's fuzzy face and he scampered towards her, his whiskers twitching._

_Rhonda held out her hands to catch him, but he passed through her as if she were made of smoke. They reached out to each other, trying several times to touch, but paws and hands met and passed through with no more substance than the air around them. But Rhonda broke into sudden tears. To have someone, anyone, able to see her was a joy to her. She knelt down in front of the weasel, trying in vain to pet him._

_'Can you see me Rueful? Can you?' she said, and Rueful nodded eagerly, chittering with excitement. Then suddenly he straightened up and turned, pointing desperately down the path he had been following. He jumped, circled and squealed, gesturing for her to follow._

_Rhonda was almost afraid to move, afraid that something would break the spell that was allowing this miraculous contact with her pet, but at his continued urging, she took some hesitant steps and followed after him. Her vision did not fade, and taking courage, she shadowed Rueful down the path...._

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Kim blocked, struck and feinted, but Monkey Fist would not fall. Their duel continued until several statues came forward at his command to engage her. Distracted by the reinforcements, she deflected their attacks. A beeping from her wrist sounded and with a glance, she saw the energy levels in her suit were in the red. Soon the power would be gone, and her only edge in the fight would be removed.

Monkey Fist stepped back to where Maze stood directing the statues. Most were holding back, and from the outlying fields, several others were drawing near, dragging the foam-encased victims of the Moo Goo Guy Gun behind them.

'We have a problem.' said Monkey Fist. 'We'll be ready to leave in a moment, but we can't with Possible interfering. I'm too weak to unleash the power of destruction again.'

'Can you turn her to stone?' Maze said, taking a metal brand from his pouch and tying it around his palm.

Monkey Fist shook his head. 'I could only manage one more, and I can't guarantee she won't avoid it. We need something to occupy her while we make our escape.'

He quickly braced himself. Kim had darted around and through the attacking statues as if they weren't even moving. Her blow combined with her shield and sent him tumbling backwards. Maze hastily retreated into the midst of several statues as Kim and Monkey Fist squared off again.

'You'll pay dearly for your interference, Possible!' Monkey Fist shouted.

'Now that's the banter I know and love.' said Kim, smiling. It looked as if Monkey Fist was _tired_, if that was possible for a statue. But she gathered that the constant use of his powers and the prolonged fight had taken a toll on him, and he was not as unbeatable as it had seemed back at his mansion.

Then to her surprise, Monkey Fist sat down in what looked like a meditation pose. _'Focus.' _he thought. _'You are too weak to unleash destruction - focus and calm....'_

'Hello?' said Kim, edging towards him. 'We're not done yet Monkey Fist, you can nap later in Cell Block D!'

But she tensed up, seeing a yellow glow surrounding Monkey Fist. He seemed to be rising up from the ground, and with a shock, Kim remembered the battle at Yamanouchi. The Destroyer rising up and moving like a flash to stop her and Yori from striking.

Monkey Fist suddenly sped forward like a rocket, still in his ridiculous meditation pose. The dust on the ground parted beneath him like the passing of a great wind.

She raised her shield and cartwheeled at the same time. Monkey Fist struck a glancing blow against the shield and with her unerring sense of balance, Kim pirouetted in mid-air and landed firmly on her feet several meters away.

But Monkey Fist plowed into her again like a piledriver, moving with the same unearthly speed. His momentum carried him too far, and he crashed into a large boulder, crumbling it into fragments. He crawled and stumbled out, climbing awkwardly to his feet.

Stars were still flashing behind Kim's eyes, combined with a loss of orientation from the force of the blow. She tried to get to her feet, but stumbled and fell to the side. She raised her shield, but it sputtered, flickered and died out.

Monkey Fist's eyes blazed. A twin pair of yellow beams lanced towards her, and there was nothing she could do to dodge them. Then suddenly the world upended around her again, her view spun crazily as she felt a sharp pain in her ribs.

_'Grimm - no!' Rhonda screamed. Her vision of Grimm was no longer a mere window of mist through which she was peering. It was like she was there on the battlefield, although everything was blurred and indistinct around her. She saw Grimm rush forward, and knew what he was about to do._

Grimm darted out of nowhere, knocking Kim roughly aside and out of the path of the beams. But doing so left him with no way to avoid them himself. The yellow light struck him, washing over him and surrounding him. A sensation of numbness crept from the ends of his limbs and worked quickly over his whole body. He saw his hands, and they were turning grey and rough.

_'I'm sorry Rhonda...'_ he thought. _'I couldn't save you. It's better not to feel anything....'_

For a brief instant he imagined he could see Rhonda running towards him, her hand outstretched. Then the yellow light overwhelmed all his vision. Rhonda cried out to him again as her view of the events began to fade back into swirling dark mists. The numbness overcame Grimm completely, then there was nothing.

Kim heaved painfully to her feet and stared in amazement. Grimm had saved her - pushing her out of the way and taking the attack that was meant for her. He stood petrified, his whole body grey and stony, his face frozen in an expression that was both resigned and sad.

With his cloak billowing behind him like the wings of a bat, Maze surged forward and clamped his hand on Grimm's. Maze chanted, there was a hiss, a plume of smoke, and then he fell backward, sinking to his knees while Monkey Fist stood forward to lift him back up.

Breathing hard, Maze looked at Kim with a gleam of pure malevolence. '_Otaatoyiwa_,' he said, smiling wickedly, '_destroy_ _Mi'kksiistsikomma!_'

The statue of Grimm stood straight and looked over his shoulder towards Kim. Then he turned and charged towards her, his feet shaking the ground beneath him, his sad expression replaced with a grimacing snarl...

Coming Soon:  
Chapter 16_  
What is the secret of the statues?_

_Author: OK, some of the riddles I used for previous chapters were easy, some tricky. This one will either be a doozy or a 'chestnut', depending on your point of view. So riddle me this: What is the secret of the statues?_

_I've dropped hints and clues throughout the story like bread crumbs, both in the text and in the pictures. If you've got a ready mind and know your stuff, then you may have figured out the answer already. If you have, then you know what they are and how they are made. If not - well, the answer will be the title of the next chapter :) Good luck!_


	18. Ch 17: Golems

A Friend In Darkness

All Things Probable 3

A Kim Possible Fanfiction

by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and its affiliates, etc. etc.

Chapter 17  
Golems

_Or: Well Emet Indeed_

Grimm was charging forward, his hands outstretched to seize Kim. She spared one split second to look at the readout on the back of her palm. Tiny blue letters read: '_Shield charging..._' next to a blinking red lightning bolt.

_'Great.'_ she thought. Even as Grimm reached her, she spun and pivoted. She side-stepped Grimm, who surged past her, and she lashed out with a kick that landed firmly in his back.

Grimm stumbled and crashed into one of the larger boulders that littered the plain outside of Basalton. There was a booming crash and large cracks spread out through the boulder along with a cloud of dust. But Grimm turned around at once, seemingly unharmed, and charged at her yet again. He crouched down and launched into a high leap, his fist raised to strike.

But Kim had already tumbled out of the way and his blow left a large crater where she had been standing. She could feel the shockwave from the force of the punch as they both righted themselves and faced off.

The shield was still recharging, but there were still other functions in her suit. She activated her hand module, moving it to block Grimm's next punch. She wasn't sure it would work - the module was designed to capture and reflect energy attacks. But she hoped that also included _kinetic_ energy.

Grimm's punch hit squarely in the center of the module's receiving pad, and seemed to stop. He fought to keep moving forward, but was unable to move his fist any closer. 'Grimm - snap out of it!' she shouted. But Grimm's face showed no sign that he even heard her. Just as Kim was preparing to twist aside, she saw a flash of pink crawling up her arm.

Rufus scampered up and leaped over, landing on Grimm's arms. His teeth flashed and he bit, but at once his eyes flew wide and he yelped, jumping up and down and holding his teeth. 'Mm-hmm! Hard!' he squealed.

Kim considered pulling him back into her hip pouch, but figured the naked mole rat would be much safer _away_ from her than close to her. Grimm was raising his other hand to strike. _'Find Wade!'_ she grunted. Rufus nodded and leaped off of Grimm's arm.

As Grimm punched, Kim tucked and rolled, planting her feet into his gut and activating her booster soles. There was a quavering _hiss_ as the soles activated and she felt the tremendous weight of Grimm's stone body as she kicked. But the soles propelled Grimm nearly twenty feet in a stiff tumble in which he crashed into the ground and slid forward, leaving a ten-foot gouge in the earth before pinging off several boulders like a skittle ball.

She glanced quickly aside and saw Rufus scampering towards the houses that were near the edge of Basalton. Then she saw a dark shadow above her and rolled quickly aside. A five foot square boulder crashed into the ground where she had been standing, breaking into several smaller pieces.

She backed up nearer to one of the houses as she saw another large rock flying at her, hurled by Grimm, who hefted and tossed it as easily as a medicine ball. Again she dodged, and the boulder bounced and tumbled, plowing straight through the wall of the house.

Kim winced. Fighting Grimm as a statue was much different than fighting the other statues had been. While the statues which were the petrified victims of Monkey Fist seemed slow and clumsy, Grimm seemed to have kept most of his agility. He still seemed to be using Tai Sheng Pek Kwar and he continued to attack Kim without letup or regard for any punishment he took. And as she saw the shattered wall and the caved in living room behind her, she knew Grimm wasn't fooling around - he was fighting with lethal force.

She tried to analyze it clinically - maybe the Grimm statue was fighting with more skill and speed because Grimm himself had been trained that way. Perhaps he had a natural aptitude for hand to hand combat and attacks which the other petrified victims of Maze and Monkey Fist simply didn't have.

She picked up a pry bar which was leaning against a tool shed in the backyard of the house as Grimm rushed towards her. She swung with all her strength and felt a jarring impact along with a ringing metallic _clank_, but again Grimm seemed totally unaffected. She dropped the bar, which was now bent in the middle and readied for another pivot maneuver.

But she ducked with a sudden gasp. Grimm did not try to seize her this time, but lashed out with a kick that nearly took her head off. As she ducked, Grimm twisted and managed to close one hand over her shoulder with a crushingly powerful grip.

Kim grimaced, bracing herself against him and raising both feet into his chest, activating her booster soles again. But this time, despite the pressure, Grimm kept a firm hold on her, his other hand clamping down on her other shoulder.

Then he was racing forward. She looked behind her and saw they were heading for the wall of one of the houses. She tried to twist free, but his grip was too strong. She gritted her teeth, smacking the display on the back of her palm and felt a surge of relief through her panic as the readout indicated the shield had minimum charge.

The shield bubbled out just as they crashed into the wall and Kim felt the wall splintering behind her back. She had a blurry glimpse of a cozy, but sparsely furnished living room before Grimm plowed through the side wall, through the yard and into the wall of another house, blasting through them as if they were made of popsicle sticks.

Kim kept trying to squirm free, but as they burst through the other wall of the second house, Kim felt the rush of open air and a strange quiet was around her. She looked down and saw nothing but a dizzying fall. They had gone over a cliffside just outside the last house.

As they both fell, she saw Grimm's fist cocked for another punch, his face still grimacing at her in stony rage. She wrenched and slid out of his other clenched hand, then deflected his punch as best she could. He was much stronger, and his blow powered through her block, but she altered herself and used his solidity as a lever to turn herself out of the brunt of his attack.

He grasped at her shoulder and she tried to pry him loose, but his fingers felt immovable. She saw the ground beneath them approaching rapidly. She checked the power gauge on her shield again - still low.

She kicked at his face and pushed away from him, firing her grapple line into the cliff side. She felt the pull of pressure that told her the hook had caught and put all the remaining power into her shield. '_Come on, just a little more..!' _ she thought.

The muscles in her arm twisted as the line went taut. She pivoted and tumbled over Grimm so that she was on top and he was on bottom, and her shield flared up just before they hit the ground.

Kim saw stars blossom in front of her eyes and heard a ringing in her ears, then felt herself rolling. Pain exploded in both wrists and she lay on the ground where she had stopped for a moment, wondering if her wrists were sprained or broken. But she was still alive, which meant Grimm and her shield had taken the worst of the impact.

But through the blurred curtain of her pain, she saw Grimm heave up from the pile of crumbled ground where he had landed. He seemed undamaged and rushed at her again.

Kim rolled to the side as his fist made another explosive sound next to her head. She felt shattered rock stinging against her cheek and rolled the other way as his other fist came down for another blow. Without saying a word, he brought both fists up for an overhand smash.

_'Hey!'_

Grimm looked up, seeming distracted momentarily by the sound. Kim heard a _bang_, and saw a white glob speeding across the air until it splattered against Grimm's chest and sent him sprawling backwards against the cliffside.

Kim got painfully to her knees, watching in amazement as Grimm seemed to sink into an expanding cocoon of white foam. He continued to punch and kick, but the foam held him in place. He twisted and writhed, but was unable to break the substance that now encased him from his neck to his feet.

She looked and saw Wade, Jade and Monique rushing towards her, with Rueful and Rufus leading the way. Wade was carrying what looked like a large gun, connected to a pack on Jade's back by a long tube wrapped in duct tape. He dropped the gun, rushing up to Kim, his face full of concern.

'We saw you fall!' said Wade. 'It looked awful - are you all right? We came as soon as Rufus and Rueful found us...'

'I'm fine.' said Kim, leaning up. 'My wrists might be sprained, but the shield took most of it...'

Monique's face was pale and she looked like she was in shock. 'Girlfriend...' she said, and her voice was weak. 'That was... oh _man_...'

'I'm _fine_.' she said again, getting to her feet. 'We have to get back up there, we have to stop Monkey Fist from getting away!'

Rueful was standing in front of the Moo Goo, squeaking and pointing. It was only then that Jade seemed to realize who was imprisoned in the Goo. 'Grimm...?' she said, stumbling forward. Her face fell in shock and she numbly shook the straps from the Moo Goo Guy Gun pack from her shoulders. _'Grimm!'_ she shouted, and broke into a run.

'Stay away from him!' Kim shouted. 'He's dangerous...' But to her surprise, when Jade stopped in front of him, Grimm didn't seem to notice. His grey eyes were still turned to Kim and he was still struggling, but only in her direction.

'Oh G-man...!' Jade said, taking out a scanner. 'Jeez, what did they _do_ to you?'

Wade was looking uncomfortably at Kim as Jade buried her knuckles against her lips. 'Should we.... _do _something?' he asked in a whisper.

Kim sighed. 'There's nothing we _can_ do right now.' she said. 'Only Monkey Fist can release him, if even _he _knows how. But to do that, we need to capture him. Will that thing imprison him?' she pointed at the Moo Goo Guy Gun, lying unheeded on the ground as Jade continued to sweep Grimm with her scanner, as if that would somehow fix him. Rueful was slithering around her ankles, still chittering and pointing.

Wade nodded, and Kim hoisted the Moo Goo gun, starting back towards the path leading back up to Basalton, leaving Jade and Grimm behind. When Kim, Wade, Rufus and Monique reached the top, all of them were winded, for the path was steep and winding. Kim rushed through the town back to the battlefield, but she saw nothing.

There was no sign of Monkey Fist or Maze, or their statues. Even the ones which had been encased in Moo Goo were missing. Besides the damaged houses and craters in the ground, there was no sign that they had ever been there. Kim went through every house and looked behind every boulder in the fields outside, but there was nothing.

'It's too late, Kim.' said Wade, who had his own scanner out and was looking down at it with a frown. 'They're gone.'

Kim stood with her back towards him, her head bowed. Then she punched the wall of the house next to her with a low mutter.

'So that's _it_?' said Monique. 'This was all just a waste? They've just disappeared without a trace?'

'They didn't leave without a trace.' said Kim quietly, 'Not this time.' and she walked back to the cliff edge, looking down to where Grimm was still trapped in his foam prison, with Jade and Rueful still in front of him.

They were all distracted by the sound of an approaching engine. Kim looked towards the road leading into Basalton, but there were no cars to be seen. Then she looked up and saw a small hovercraft descending through the grey clouds above. It lighted down like a massive beetle, and dust blew everywhere as it settled onto the ground, the engine still running. From a hatchway on the side, a thin, wiry looking person stepped forward, wearing a dark jumpsuit. His face looked both arrogant and annoyed.

'The report said there was trouble out here,' said Agent Will Du, sweeping his eyes over Kim and the others. 'I should have known it was _you_.'

Kim winced. Of all the Global Justice agents, why was it that, whenever she dealt with Global Justice, she always got sent the most irritating one of the bunch? 'Agent Du.' Kim said flatly.

'Kim Possible.' he said, walking up to them and folding his arms. 'So what's the '_sitch'_ as you might call it? No wait, let me guess. Everyone in the town was turned to stone and then vanished into the blue?'

'Not everyone.' said Kim, feeling glad that now they had at least _some_ evidence to present. 'This time I can prove my story.'

Some of Du's smugness seemed to deflate. 'I'm sure Global Justice will be glad to _see_ this evidence.' he said, sounding quite insincere. 'If you'll accompany us back to our local base of operations...' He gestured to the hovercraft.

Kim spoke briskly. 'We'll need to carry along a payload about 450 kilograms....'

Will Du shook his head. 'If you'll take a _close_ look at this craft,' he said snidely, 'You'll notice it doesn't have a cargo bay. I was sent to scout a disturbance, not transport baggage. This craft can only handle the pilot, myself and two passengers.'

'If you want us back at your base now, and if you still want us to present evidence, then we'll need to transport...' Kim started impatiently.

'I'll radio base and have them send a retrieval unit.' Will broke in. 'While your _cargo_ is being delivered, you will come to the base and tell your story to Dr. Director. Once your evidence is in hand, I'll inspect it personally.'

'Fine.' said Kim. 'Monique - you want to ride shotgun?' Monique nodded, but looked somehow distant and distracted.

'How about I come instead?' said Wade. 'I've got...' But Kim interrupted.

'I need you to stay here, Wade.' she said. 'Collect all our stuff. Make sure Grimm gets taken to the base, and _don't_ leave Du alone until he sees Grimm for himself. Right now, he's our only piece of... _hard_ evidence, so to speak.' Wade nodded. 'And if they can bring back the Sloth and Grimm's bike, that would be helpful too.'

Wade nodded again. Kim started towards the hovercraft, where Will Du was standing and looking at his watch. As she and Monique were getting on board, she called out to Wade one more time. 'And make sure Jade doesn't bolt.' she said. 'We might need her.'

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Jade stood fidgeting in front of Grimm. _Super genius_. Everyone always called her a super genius back home. She had made dozens of devices, and ripped off quite a few others to reverse engineer them. She had been Grimm's idea-girl for as long as she could remember. Yet as she stared at Grimm, his face blank and petrified, she couldn't think of a thing.

Grimm had conducted numerous drills about what to do if he or Rhonda were ever injured or incapacitated while in the field, but none of those drills meant anything at the moment. Rhonda was gone. Grimm was a statue, not speaking or moving. And Team Possible was right there, probably already planning to take him away to who knew where? Rueful wasn't much help - his normal shtick was sabotage and distraction, not heavy lifting.

Her first instinct was to get Grimm out of there, as fast as she could. But her hover platform was busted, and she would need time to fix it. And even then it wouldn't support Grimm's weight. She had tried to pull and drag the Moo Goo cocoon herself, but Grimm was simply too heavy. She wasn't well built and didn't have the strength to move him.

She was just about to use her scanner to try and call the bike to her by remote. Her only hope was the _Ksikkihkíni_, but how she was supposed to harness Grimm to the cycle and fly all the way home with him in that condition... no ideas were coming to her. She looked into Grimm's blank, expressionless face and felt a surge of panic. Grimm had never been caught before, and so she'd never had to worry about anything like this.

But even as she was scanning, she saw Wade rounding the path and puffing his way towards her. _'Darn it!'_ she thought.

Wade joined her in staring at Grimm. 'So how's Rocky doing?' he said.

'Ha-ha, very funny.' Jade growled. 'I've run every scan I can think of, and it's not showing anything but solid rock. This isn't a stone shell or fossilization like I've ever seen - his whole body has _transfigured_ somehow.'

Wade stared. Grimm was now completely motionless. He may as well have been part of the rocky landscape. 'Why isn't he trying to get out anymore?' he said.

'I don't know.' said Jade. 'He just... stopped moving a few minutes ago.'

'So... what do we _do_ with him?' said Wade.

Jade fidgeted where she stood, biting her lip and not looking directly at Grimm. 'Well, for the moment I guess we leave him in the Moo Goo. It'll last a day or so before the adhesive effects wear off. By then we can put him into some more permanent restraints.'

Wade looked at the expansive ball that surrounded Grimm. 'And how do we move him?'

An idea formed in Jade's head. But she paused, considering. If she proposed it herself, Wade would get suspicious. _'What would Grimm do_?' she thought, and the answer came to her in a flash. _'Make him think it's his idea._' 'Well,' she said out loud, knowing the answer before she even asked, 'Will he fit in the trunk of your car or in the backseat?'

'No.' said Wade firmly. 'Look at him - the goo makes him about six feet square. We'd need to tear the Sloth apart to even try it.'

'How about tying him to the roof?' she said, again guessing how he would answer based on his physique.

Wade shook his head. 'I couldn't lift him - how about you?'

'No....' she said, faking a look of puzzlement. 'I wish we had a more open-air vehicle we could strap him to...' she said, and trailed off, wondering if Wade would rise to the bait.

'How about Grimm's bike?' Wade said. 'That thing can hover, right?'

Jade smirked, thinking Grimm couldn't have done better himself.

Several minutes later, Jade had haltingly landed the _Ksikkihkíni_ next to Grimm. With Wade's help, they had salvaged the repulsion element from Jade's platform and fastened it to the Moo Goo to lighten Grimm's overall weight. Then they had lashed the foam cocoon to the back of the bike with several lengths of hooked cable. Wade dug the hooks into the Moo Goo as best he could and they seemed to be holding. Grimm remained silent and still the whole time. At last the turbines on the bike whined, the cables creaked, and Jade carefully sat down behind the controls.

She bit her lip. If she was going to run for it, now was the time. She checked to make sure Rueful was stowed safely, then edged her hand towards the accelerator...

'Thinking about leaving?'

Jade flinched as Wade stared at her. 'Well... so what if I am?' she said. 'It's not like hanging out with _you_ losers did Grimm any good!'

Wade glared. 'Fine.' he said. 'If you get him back home, then what?'

Jade opened her mouth, but no words came out. She simply sat there, looking as if she were trying to come up with something clever. 'I'll.... think of _something_.' she said at last.

Wade sighed. 'I thought I could too.' he said. 'In the last fight, I came up with some of my best stuff, and I was sure it would work on those statues. But it didn't. Whatever's been done to them, it's outside the realm of normalcy.'

Jade didn't look at him. Her eyes remained focused on the dashboard. 'I'm _not_ leaving him to you guys or those Global Justice mooks!' she said. 'You'll just throw him in jail, or leave him under a cloud of pigeons in some park or other!'

'Why?' said Wade, and there was a hint of resentment in his voice. 'Because that's what _you_ guys would do if the shoe was on the other foot?'

Jade lowered her head even more. 'Yeah.' she said, sounding resentful.

Wade sighed. 'Look,' he said walking closer to her. 'I don't know what your boss says about us in his off time, but you've got us all wrong. Kim's not like that and neither am I. Kim and Grimm made a deal that they'd work together until all this was over, until Ron and Rhonda were back. Well, Ron isn't back and from what I can see, the sitch is _far_ from over.'

Jade didn't answer.

'The deal is still in place.' said Wade. 'Trust Kim - she's a helper. She won't break her word.'

Jade seemed almost tormented. 'I... _can't_.' she said. 'When you're a mercenary, you can't trust anyone - that's how you keep yourself alive.'

'You trust Rhonda - and Grimm.' said Wade.

'That's different!' said Jade. 'I know them - we earned the trust we had!'

'I once heard someone say something pretty smart.' said Wade. 'How can I prove that I'm trustworthy - unless you trust me?'

'Yeah?' said Jade, sneering. 'Who came up with _that_ line of bunk?'

'Grimm did.'

For some time, she said nothing. Rueful slithered out of his pack and bounded onto the dashboard of the _Ksikkihkíni_, looking up at her with low trill. 'Without Grimm and Rhonda, there _is_ no Team Probable.' she said at last. 'Me and Rueful are all that's left.' She looked up, and Wade saw her eyes were wet. 'All right. I'll take a gamble - just like Grimm did. And hope to heck that you guys are as lucky he thought you were.'

'I can't promise much.' Wade said, 'But I do promise if there's a way to bring them back - we'll do our best to make it happen.'

Jade wiped her eyes. 'Yeah, well you _better_.' she said, and the spark was returning to her voice. 'Cuz if you don't, I'll open a bag of freak on you like you won't believe!'

Wade smiled. 'Trust you for _that_.' he said.

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Despite the sound of the hovercraft's engines, Kim found the flight unusually quiet. Monique was sitting with her arms curled around her knees, which were drawn up nearly level with her chin. She was rocking slightly back and forth, her expression distant.

'Monique?' said Kim. 'What's wrong?'

'What's wrong?' she said, her voice breaking slightly. 'What do _you_ think is wrong, girlfriend? I was nearly killed by a mutant monkey man turned into a living statue while on a mission with a friend who told me that I wouldn't have to do any fighting! You think maybe _that's_ what's wrong?'

'Monique, it was just Monkey Fist...'

'Well I'm sorry Kim!' Monique snapped, and her voice was suddenly angry. 'Maybe it's 'just Monkey Fist' to you, but I don't normally deal with this kind of stuff!'

Kim was stunned. She had never heard Monique talk like this before, never seen her genuinely upset. She had always seemed steady, even going up against the Fashionistas, and against Gill and Camille. But now she was obviously fighting to stop herself from crying, and burying her face in her hands.

'I shouldn't be here....' she sobbed. 'Every time you and Ron talked about your missions, he made it sound like the easiest thing in the world. It was all jokes and laughs, like saving the world was _fun_.' She paused, sniffing and wiping her eyes. 'I wish I was more like Ron.' she said softly. 'I have no idea how he kept it together - this isn't fun at all....'

And Kim could think of nothing to say as Monique burst into tears beside her.

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_Rhonda had her fists clenched, her knuckles pressed to her lips. Her eyes were wide and her mouth was hanging open. Her vision of what had happened on the battlefield had faded, and she was surrounded by nothing but dark mists again._

_'Hey, you're back!' said Ron, and Rhonda flinched, looking at him as if she hadn't expected to hear anyone. As he saw the look on her face, his own normal cheerful expression dropped into one of concern. 'What happened? You kind of zoned out for a while there...'_

_'I saw Grimm.' she said, and her voice was a pale whisper of her normal bravado. 'Monkey Fist was about to hit Kim with some kind of yellow beams from his eyes...'_

_Ron felt his own mouth fall open. 'What?' he said. 'But... that's what the Yono did when he turned Kim to....' he stopped, hearing himself asking the question and terrified of what she might answer. 'Did he...?'_

_'Grimm pushed her out of the way!' Rhonda said, 'He got hit, and......' but she broke into tears, unable to say any more._

_Ron understood, but he couldn't believe it. After everything Grimm had done to hurt Kim over their encounters, after all the misery and angst, the thought of Grimm saving Kim from Monkey Fist seemed beyond reason. He laid an uncomfortable hand on Rhonda's shoulder._

_And at once the mists around them both seemed to draw aside. All was grey and colorless, but he plainly saw both Kim and Monique, sitting side by side in some kind of transport. Rhonda seemed to see it as well, and stopped crying. At once, they both shouted and waved their hands, trying to get their attention. But after a few frantic seconds, the vision faded and the dark mists returned._

_'Did... you see what I saw?' Ron said tremulously._

_'Yeah....' said Rhonda. 'But... they couldn't see us.' She suddenly shouted. 'I saw Rueful before I saw Grimm - Rueful could see me! He knew I was there!' She put her face in her hands again, but this time she seemed angry instead of miserable. 'What does it mean?' she said. 'Why do we keep seeing this stuff? How does it happen? It this place just torturing us?'_

_'I don't know.' said Ron, and he finally set his brain into high gear, trying to think of answers. 'We saw what we saw when I touched you.' he said. 'Let's try that again.'_

_Rhonda looked up and nodded, holding out her hand. Ron reached up and took her hand in his. They both looked around, but the mists remained and she let go, growling in frustration. 'This place is really ticking me off!' she said._

_'Maybe that's part of it.' said Ron, looking at his hand. Then he looked at Rhonda, his eyes glazed over and trying to remember. 'Our frustration might be blocking us now. Let's go over what was happening each time we've seen something.'_

_Rhonda sighed. 'OK, you were the first one to see.' she said. 'You were just sort of goofing around when you suddenly peeked in on your GF while she was sleeping.'_

_'I.... did not!' said Ron hotly. 'I saw her when she was dreaming! She just happened to be in bed at the time!'_

_'Yeah,' said Rhonda, sounding unconvinced. 'And the next time?'_

_'I think I was practicing duck calls.' Ron said. 'Then I saw Kim sitting in my treehouse - and she was... crying.' He paused, then looked to Rhonda. 'Then you saw Grimm later on.'_

_'Yeah, it happened after we shared camp stories.' she said, feeling uncomfortable over how low her guard had been after that experience. 'I saw him kneeling in some kind of wooded area - he was asking the Great Bear Spirit for help...'_

_'And then you saw him....'_

_'Getting turned to stone.' she sniffed. 'He looked so helpless, I've never seen him like that...'_

_'And I saw Kim just now, but Monique was with her, and she was crying....' And ideas started popping in his head. 'Every time we've seen something, it's been because either we, or they were really worked up about something.' he said. 'Maybe this place is keyed to emotions.... But then how did I see Kim those times when I was just goofing around?'_

_'Because she was upset.' said Rhonda, looking off into the cloudy distance. 'This is the spirit world. It's not emotion that's doing this - it's... something spiritual. We're close to them - we're... spiritually bonded somehow, and we're seeing what they see....'_

_'What - when their spirits are troubled?' said Ron._

_Rhonda looked like she was thinking hard. 'It think...' she said, 'It might be an 'either-or, or a 'both' thing. Sometimes it happened when either one of us was spiritually in touch, or one of them. And when one of us AND one of them were in synch at the same time, it became even clearer...'_

_'Then why can't they see us?'_

_Rhonda looked at the patch over her upper right arm. 'Since I became the Bear Priestess,' she said quietly, 'I've been able to... I don't know, bond with animals. But they only come to me and communicate with me when I've been meditating, or when I'm chilling in the woods and stuff. And Rueful's been close to me since the day I got him. Maybe that's why I saw him first - because our spirits were more in synch - then he led me to Grimm....'_

_'So... animals can see you?' Ron said excitedly. 'Did you see Rufus?'_

_'No.' said Rhonda. 'Haven't you seen him yet?'_

_Ron shook his head, but Rhonda was uncovering the patch over her arm, revealing a birthmark shaped like the pawprint of a bear. She held up her hand again. 'Let's... try it.' she said._

_Ron took her hand. Rhonda bowed her head and concentrated, her voice sounding in a low chant._

_Omahkkiaayowa,  
Nitsiinihkatsimatsiiwa..._

_Ron let his mind focus on Rufus, listening to Rhonda's chant. The mists didn't part, but Ron did see something - as if the mists right in front of him were taking the shape of a familiar, long toothed and whiskered friend... He gasped, then the mists spread out and became shapeless again._

_Rhonda opened an eye. 'Did it work?' she said._

_'Sort of...' Ron said. 'I kinda thought I saw Rufus for a second there....'_

_'We're must not be spiritual enough yet!' Rhonda said, sounding eager. 'Come on - let's... do more spirity stuff! If we can figure a way to see Rufus or Rueful, and if they can see us, maybe we can have them send a message or something!'_

_Rhonda went into the lotus position at once. 'Get going!' she said, looking up at Ron anxiously. 'Show me some more meditatey good-vibey tricks!' And she knitted her eyebrows in fierce concentration, her hands clenched hard._

_Ron looked down at her, and felt despite the things they had just learned, that Rhonda still wasn't quite getting it..._

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The England base for Global Justice was almost a mirror clone for all the other bases Kim had been in. Spotless metal corridors with key-card security doors at regular intervals, all lit with the same pale fluorescent lights. The larger rooms were mostly training areas for their field agents, along with several labs and research facilities.

Will Du had turned Kim over to a pair of burly agents who were so silent, Kim thought they must be former guards to Buckingham Palace. Du had given them instructions to see Kim to Dr. Director, and left without even a nod.

After a few minutes of being led through the antiseptic corridors, Kim halted. 'We split up here.' she said to Monique.

'What? I thought we were supposed to be seeing this Dr. Director person.' said Monique.

'I'll do it.' she said. She turned to the agents escorting them. 'Have you got an infirmary?' One agent nodded, but said nothing.

'Take Monique there and have your medics make sure she's all right.' she said. 'And if you've got a trauma counselor, take her there too. Once she's been looked after - see that she's returned safely to Middleton.'

Monique looked stunned. 'Girlfriend, _what_ is goin' on?' she said.

Kim looked at the agents. 'Can we have a minute?' she said pointedly, and after exchanging glances, the two agents moved down the hall. Once they were a few yards away, she turned back to Monique, lowering her voice. 'Monique, I want you to go home.'

Monique bit her lip. 'Go _home_?' she said. 'What, you think I can't hack it? If this is about what I said on the hovercraft, I was just a little freaked that's all...!'

'That's only part of it.' said Kim, 'It also has to do with me being too reckless.'

'You been reckless since you started this save the world thing.' said Monique, forcing a smile.

'I _know_.' said Kim. 'But it's never hit as hard as it has during this caper.' She sighed, looking down and away from Monique. 'Ron's missing. And you were almost killed. I can't risk losing anyone else, and I can't ask you to put your life on the line for me anymore.'

'But... I still want to _help_.' said Monique, looking guilty.

'You've done enough.' she said, putting her hand on Monique's shoulder. 'You were right. I should never have put you through this - and it wasn't fair of me to ask you.'

'But what about Grimm?' Monique said. 'You brought me on to make sure he didn't get to you...'

'I think I can carry on now.' she said. 'It's been a few days and it's getting easier. Besides, I don't think Grimm's head gaming is going to be a problem just now - he doesn't seem too talkative.'

Monique looked down. 'Kim, I....'

'Go _home_, Monique.' Kim said, her voice lowering. 'It's all right - you've done enough.'

Monique felt Kim giving her a quick hug, and then she was walking down the hall, following the first agent. She tried to call after Kim, to say something, but no words came. They turned a corner in the hallway and were gone.

'Miss Monique?' the second agent asked, for Monique stood looking after Kim for several seconds. 'If you'll follow me, the infirmary is this way.' Monique turned and started walking in the direction the agent was indicating, feeling dazed, with several emotions roiling inside her. 'Our doctors will look you over, though they may need to access your previous medical records. Do you have a last name I should have them list when filling out the forms?'

'Yeah,' said Monique, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. 'It's.... _mud_.'

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Rufus peered up at Kim from her hip pouch. He looked back to where Monique had been walking beside them and let out a sad sounding squeak.

Kim heard it, but couldn't bring herself to look down at Rufus or try to explain it to him. And she wondered if Rufus would understand anyway. Rufus had always been fearless - going into sitches that should have been way beyond him. How could she explain to him that Monique wasn't like that? She wasn't sure she could explain it to herself. But the only right thing to do was to make sure that Monique was safe, and the only sure way to do that was to get her home as soon as possible.

It wasn't long before the escorting agent brought her to a doorway that was as sterile looking and featureless as the others, only larger and more solid. On a metal plaque welded to the door were the words _"Dr. Betty Director - Chief Officer"_

Kim was escorted into an office and felt as if she had wandered into a scene from a Hollywood movie. The entire office seemed to be dark, but somehow the desk was lit. Everything that was visible seemed eerily shiny, without a speck of dust or a fingerprint to be seen, not even on the pens.

Dr. Betty Director looked up from a set of papers in a folder she held in her hands. She was pretty much as Kim had remembered her from the time when Global Justice had been studying Ron, with her close-cropped brown hair and her stern face. Her well-toned frame was covered with a uniform that seemed a bit more formal than Kim remembered, but somehow the look suited her. She looked warily at Kim through her good eye, the patch over her other eye blending in perfectly with the shadows. Her expression wasn't exactly hostile, but it didn't seem very friendly either. She nodded to the escorting agent, who silently withdrew from the room, the door hissing shut behind him.

'Ms. Possible.' she said. 'Thank you for seeing me.' She motioned to the chair in front of her desk, a plain chair made of black plastic supported by spindly-looking metal tubes. Kim sat down, feeling somehow out of place, still in her battle suit. The bands flickered and buzzed for an instant, and Dr. Director raised an eyebrow. 'Problem with your equipment?' she said.

'No.' said Kim, slapping the readout pad on the back of her hand. 'It's... just had a pretty rough workout today.'

'So I've heard.' said Dr. Director, flipping through a few of the pages in the folder. 'Our agents say several of the houses in Basalton are heavily damaged, and the entire population seems to have disappeared. Would you care to explain?'

Kim had the odd feeling that Dr. Director was _interrogating_ her, but she answered respectfully. 'It was the same sitch that I reported in the town of Graniton.' she said. 'I told everything to Will Du several days ago.'

Dr. Director didn't respond. Kim caught on at once. 'He _did_ report to you, didn't he?'

Dr. Director's face took on a poker stiffness. 'Agent Du relayed your information,' she said. 'However, he was extremely vocal in his doubts as to the... _plausibility_ of that information.'

Kim smiled weakly. 'I _know_ it sounds implausible.' she said. 'Try _living_ it.'

'So you stand by this?' said Dr. Director. 'Monkey Fist's return - mystical monkey powers - a shaman who uses darkness as a weapon - and statues that can walk?'

'It's no weirder than having a twin brother with missiles instead of fingers.' Kim said.

Dr. Director blinked and leaned back in her chair. 'Point taken.' she said quietly, and then she sighed, putting the folder down. 'These are serious matters, Kim.' she said, switching to using her first name. 'Graniton's disappearance didn't create much of a stir, but now we have _two_ towns with missing populations. It's only a matter of time before this leaks out, and the government of England is going to want _answers_. And frankly, even with your testimony, the ones you've supplied are not going to satisfy anyone.'

Kim nodded. 'I'm not the only witness this time.' she said. 'We've got others besides me and Wade. Have you ever heard of a group of teen mercenaries called Team Probable?'

'I can't say that I have.' said Dr. Director.

Kim shook her head, momentarily frustrated. 'Nothing at all?' she said. 'They hire out to villains and do heists and other work for them. They've had a finger in almost every major caper for ages now. And Global Justice has _nothing_ on them?'

'I'm afraid not, Kim.' said Dr. Director. 'I'd never heard of them until you mentioned them just now.'

Kim winced, remembering Leigh Gality's little speech from when Grimm had first turned up at her house. _'The only thing Global Justice can do is admit their own duplicity in using you. They have nothing on my client.'_

Kim fought back the anger she'd felt that day. 'They were mixed up in this.' she said. 'And they got _caught up_ in it. Their leader, Grimm Probable, was helping me out for a while...'

'And this Grimm person will back you up in your testimony?'

Kim paused. 'He would, I think.' she said. 'Except that he's kind of.... petrified.'

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Will Du stood in the hangar in the Global Justice base. The transport had arrived a few minutes ago and brought Wade, Jade, Rufus and Rueful with them. He had watched with dignified detachment as several agents muscled a bizarre object into the landing bay. He now stood in front of a man-sized ball of white foam. The head of a spiky-haired statue was jutting out from the foam, along with a pair of stone hands. He looked impassively at the strange sight, then turned to the small boy next to him. 'Would you mind telling me why you had our organization waste time and resources transporting _this_ here?' he said.

'It's evidence.' said Wade patiently. 'Evidence of what happened to the people in Graniton and Basalton. They were petrified by Monkey Fist, and then somehow animated by Maze.'

'You're saying this thing is _alive_?' said Du.

'For lack of a better description, yeah.' Wade said.

Du plinked his fingers on Grimm's hair, his ear, and even one of his eyes. Grimm didn't move at all. 'It doesn't seem very alive to _me_.' he said at last.

Wade gritted his teeth. Of all the times for Grimm to be _difficult_... He took out one of his circuitry welders and gave Grimm a quick prod at his fingertip. There was a spark, but Grimm did not react in any way. He tried a couple more times, on his palm and the tip of his nose, but nothing.

Will Du was looking smug again. 'Would you like me to get a hammer and chisel?' he said.

'Don't even _think_ about it, helmet-head!' Jade said, stepping forward.

Du glared at her, his dislike for Jade's attitude increasing by the second. 'And how long am I supposed to stay here and watch you give reflex tests to a _statue_?'

'It's not a statue!' Wade said, frustrated. 'This is one of Monkey Fist's victims!'

'It's a _statue_.' said Will again. 'I admit it looks very well sculpted, but it's a statue regardless.'

'But he was _moving_ when we caught him!' Wade said, slapping Grimm on the cheek and succeeding only in hurting his fingers.

'Of course he was.' said Will Du, his voice now filled with a dripping sanctimony. He looked at his watch, and then at the exit to the hangar. 'Well, thank you for your cooperation Mr. Load, but without more convincing evidence, I'm afraid I can't justify assigning any more resources from Global Justice to this case.'

Wade sputtered, but Will Du was already turning away. 'I'll have you, your vehicles and your pet statue taken to Heathrow and booked onto a commercial cargo flight back to Middleton,' he said. 'Possible will join you there once Dr. Director has finished questioning her. After that, you and your little girlfriend are on your own.'

'_Girlfriend_??' Jade shrieked. 'Where the heck did _that_ come from?!'

Will Du paused before answering. 'Methinks the lady doth protest _too much_.' he said.

'Why I oughtta...!' Jade yelled, swinging a wrench at him. Wade had to hold her back, grappling her arm and interposing himself between her and Du. 'Get outta my way, I'm gonna kick his.....'

Du walked calmly towards one of the hangar exits, which hissed open in front of him. 'You kids don't get carried away, now.' he said, smirking before the door snapped shut.

Jade was still sputtering and struggling, even though Du was gone. 'You... stuck up.... Oooooh! Lousy... no good.... sunnuvva...!'

'Rope it in!' Wade said. 'Yelling at them isn't going to do any good!'

Jade was muttering and grumbling as she stormed back and forth. _'This_ is why Grimm stayed a mercenary!' she said. 'No one at Global Justice ever had the brains put two and two together!'

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Dr. Drakken heard the echoing thump of many feet and paused in directing his workers so he could be waiting at the entrance to the lair. What he saw surprised him. Monkey Fist and Maze were both being helped along, supported by a pair of statues. A large number of other statues were with them as well, and some were dragging what looked to Drakken like giant throw pillows.

'What... _is_ this?' he said. 'I thought you were collecting more workers - you didn't say anything about shopping for beanbag chairs!'

Monkey Fist and Maze glared at him angrily. 'What were you _doing_ while we were away?' said Monkey Fist, and his voice was sharp with suspicion.

'What do you mean, _what was I doing_?' Drakken sputtered. 'I spent the whole time trying to direct your rock-people so they would work without breaking anything!'

Monkey Fist strode wearily past him, then looked back. 'Kim Possible attacked us while we were collecting our... new charges.'

'What?' Drakken said. 'How did she know that you were.... wherever it is you went?'

'Precisely what _we_ were wondering.' Monkey Fist answered, and he looked at Drakken's computer work station, then at Drakken himself. 'The only explanation is that _someone_ in the know must have tipped her off.'

Drakken shook his head. 'Who would do _that_?' he said, then he saw both of them were staring at him, their faces very unfriendly. 'You think it was _me_?' he frothed. '_Helping_ Kim Possible? I'll have to invent a whole new word to describe how _wrong_ that is!'

'You had the equipment and the opportunity.' said Maze, his voice soft, but dangerous. 'And perhaps the motivation. You certainly have not seemed _enthusiastic_ in your duties.'

Drakken gritted his teeth. 'I'm insulted!' he said. 'I swear by all the honor I hold as a megalomanical super-villain that I didn't...'

'Your word? We'd prefer something more substantial.' Monkey Fist said.

'Nnnn!' Drakken grimaced. 'Fine!' Then he called out loudly. '_Shego!'_ And an instant later, Shego was at his side. 'Would you tell these guys everything that I've been doing since they left?'

Shego turned to Monkey Fist and Maze and began to speak in a flat, toneless voice. 'After you left, Dr. Drakken attempted to enter the inner chambers to view your project. He was stopped by me seconds later. He then tried to trick me into bringing him a Dodo bird, but I refused. He then worked on the Jammer designs for several minutes while I watched. Then he tried to sneak into the inner chambers again. I pulled him bodily back to his work station, while he loudly declared that he was going to tell his mother....'

'Wait! You don't need to tell him _that_...!' Drakken shouted, his cheeks flushing purple.

'Let me boil it down.' said Monkey Fist impatiently. 'Shego - did Dr. Drakken contact anyone outside our lair or relay our plans to anyone?'

'No.' she answered.

'There - you _see_?' said Drakken triumphantly. 'You may now beg my forgiveness!'

Monkey Fist and Maze ignored him, sitting down on crude stone chairs and leaning back wearily while sharing dark looks. 'If it was not an inside job, then _how_ did they find us?' said Monkey Fist. 'The first time in Graniton seemed like random chance - now it seems more like a calculation.'

'She was there with _Otaatoyiwa_.' said Maze, his eyes narrowing. 'He must have joined forces with _Mi'kksiistsikomma_. She is relentless - and he is cunning.'

Monkey Fist's eyes narrowed as well. 'I admit the prospect of Kim Possible and Grimm Probable forming an alliance disturbs me - luckily thanks to our powers, Probable is no longer part of the equation. But their computer experts were also there.' He turned to Drakken. 'Is there any way they could have tracked us electronically?'

Drakken forced air through pursed lips and waved his hand. 'I tell you, the Jammer's signals are undetectable! There's no way anyone could track it to its source! They only thing that _might_ be detected is.....' he trailed off, his eyes glazing over. He looked over at the miniature Jammer, staring at it and his computers.

'Well?' said Monkey Fist.

'Ah....' said Drakken, looking uncomfortable, 'It's plausible that a machine could be developed which would detect any satellite which the Jammer was controlling.'

Both Maze and Monkey Fist were standing up. 'If that is true, how would that knowledge serve them?' said Maze.

Drakken was still looking over at the Jammer. 'If they knew which satellite was being controlled, they could make a rough guess as to any area on the ground which was targeted by that satellite...' he said, tapping a black gloved finger against his chin. 'Not a pinpoint guess mind you, but they could get within a few dozen miles....'

'That cannot be allowed!' said Maze, anger rising in his voice.

'Relax - I should be able to develop some countermeasures which will prove effective....' Drakken said, reaching for his welding tools, but Monkey Fist raised a long-fingered hand.

'Soon.' he said. 'We have no plans to use the machine for the present, and there is another matter which will need to be tended before you can have your additional workers.'

'What?' said Drakken impatiently.

Monkey Fist pointed towards the large pillow-like objects on the cavern floor. 'Probable and Possible's assistants created some kind of weapon which was able to imprison our new servants.' he said. 'We need you to find a way to.... _fix_ them.'

Drakken seemed to notice the statues imprisoned in the Moo Goo for the first time. He had his magnifying goggles on a moment later and was pulling at some of the goo with a pair of forceps, leaning in to look closely. Maze and Monkey Fist watched him.

'Hmm...' he said at last. 'Electrostatically conjoined particles with individual expansion capability - porous... resilient... probably very effective against concussive force... no wonder your rock boys had trouble with it....'

'Can you get them _out_?' said Monkey Fist impatiently.

Drakken licked his lips, still examining the Goo. 'I could try making a chemical compound which would coat the particles and block the electrostatic cohesion. It would take time though.' He paused, considering. 'Well, there's always the simple solution... _Shego!' _And Shego was again at his side, as if darting in from nowhere.

Drakken looked over at Monkey Fist. 'Do you care if she damages any of your rock people?'

Monkey Fist shook his head. 'Do what you must.' he answered.

'Shego - burn this stuff off!' Drakken said.

Shego stood there, impassive. 'How?' she said flatly.

'Oh _come on_!' said Drakken, waving at one of the imprisoned statues. 'Activate your glow!'

Shego raised her hands and a flickering of green and black flame surmounted them. Monkey Fist stared with sudden interest. 'Curious...' he said. 'I did not know she retained her powers in her new form...' Shego merely stood with her hands glowing and didn't move.

Drakken shook his head in exasperation. 'Now _use_ your glow to burn away this poofy stuff!'

Shego leaned forward and held out her hands. Her glow spread out in a wide beam, bathing one of the imprisoned statues and the Goo holding it. There was a smell like burning rubber, a billowing smoke, then the glow faded and they all stood staring at a man-shaped thing, covered in a clinging layer of clumpy ash. At a gesture from Monkey Fist, the statue walked forward, the charred remains of the Goo crumbling off in large, blackened flakes.

'Booyah!' Drakken shouted. 'When all else fails, use fire! First rule of the true scientist!'

'Very good.' said Monkey Fist. 'Have Shego release the others. Then devote some time to developing these _countermeasures_ you spoke of.'

Drakken seemed pleased at the prospect of burning things, and soon the other imprisoned statues were being bathed in green flames. Maze gestured Monkey Fist over and spoke to him in a low voice. 'You still think he can be trusted?' he said.

'His account explains the timing of Possible's attack.' he answered. 'They did not find us right away - they arrived just as we were preparing to leave Basalton. They must have detected our satellite during that time and traveled to our general location as he described. And besides - Shego is incapable of lying to us, and she has watched him relentlessly at our command.'

'What should we do?' said Maze.

Monkey Fist looked over at Drakken, who had a sample of unburned Moo Goo in his hand, torn from a larger mass by Shego. 'Let us see what Drakken comes up with.' he said. 'If he fails to come up with anything clever, as is likely, then we may have to consider using the machine to target Kim Possible after all.'

'Surely _Otaatoyiwa_ will deal with her?' said Maze.

Monkey Fist sniffed. 'I would not count on that.' he said. 'Kim Possible has an annoying habit of doing the impossible...'

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Kim halted on the tarmac at Heathrow, looking up at the plane in front of her. She checked her Kimmunicator, making sure this was one Wade had said. Dr. Director had promised to help if anything more substantial came up, and she was certainly better to talk to than Will Du.

After the meeting with Dr. Director was over, she had gone to the infirmary and had her wrists looked at. The doctors said they were strained, not sprained, and bandaged both wrists firmly with instructions to go easy on them for a day or so. Monique was not there.

Then she had met with Du again, and Du lost no time in telling Kim about his less-than-convincing examination of Grimm. She would have argued the point, but given how the rest of the day had gone, she wasn't hopeful that she could persuade him.

Kim had been escorted off base without much fanfare, and driven to the airport to catch her flight home. The plane looked old, and seemed rusted in some spots. But she had traveled in antiquated turbo-props flown by bush pilots, so it didn't bother her. She supposed this was merely a parting shot from Will Du to remind her how low esteem he had for her.

Wade was waiting at the base of a small stair leading up into the plane. 'Kim!' he shouted over the roar of other jets taking off and landing. 'Did you see Will?' Kim nodded and grimaced.

'About the same, huh?' Wade said, looking crestfallen as Kim nodded again. 'Well I guess I can't blame him too much.' he went on. 'If I'd been the examiner, I might have come to the same conclusions.'

'So Probable just _sat there_?' Kim said, feeling miffed. After nearly getting killed by his assault, she expected him to put on more of a show in the heart of Global Justice headquarters.

'I wish I knew why.' Wade said, shaking his head. 'I felt so stupid I thought I was wearing clown shoes and making balloon animals.'

'Where is he now?' Kim said.

'He's on board in the cargo hold along with the Sloth and the bike.' Wade said. 'Jade's keeping an eye on him.'

'She been any trouble?' Kim said.

Wade managed a thin smile. 'Not as much as I expected.' he said. 'I thought she was going to make off with Grimm when my back was turned. But I might have persuaded her to give us a try now. Where's Monique?'

Kim faltered. 'I.... sent her on ahead.' she answered, not sure how to respond. 'I figured she could use a break - and I've kept her away from Club Banana long enough as it is...'

Wade nodded, seeming to accept her explanation and he started up the stairs. 'You coming?' he said. 'We'll be taking off in a few minutes.'

'I'll be back in the hold in a few.' she said, following him up. 'First I need to stop by the lavatory and change. The suit's been sputtery since the battle.'

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By the time Kim had changed into her spare clothes and a jacket, the plane was already taking off. She steadied herself until she felt the plane leveling, then carefully made her way towards the rear cargo hold, threading her way through crates and boxes which were lashed down to holding clamps.

When she got to the back, she saw Wade and Jade sitting across from each other, the Sloth lashed down on one side of the plane, the _Ksikkihkíni_ on the other. They were both wearing jackets and sitting quietly. Rueful was curled around Jade's shoulders, trilling softly while she scratched his ears. Jade looked dazed and depressed.

Wade saw Kim and nodded his head further back. Then Kim saw Grimm behind them, still encased in Moo Goo, looking ridiculously like a giant, lumpy soccer ball tethered to the floor of the plane. He did indeed seem still and totally lifeless. She paused a moment to circle around and look into his face.

The effect was immediate. As soon as Kim was directly in front of him, Grimm started moving, fighting against his restraints. He reached his arms out to seize her, but the Goo held him in place. His hands and fingers grasped and clutched at her as she stepped quickly away. Wade and Jade shouted in surprise, falling down from the crates they had been sitting on.

They all backed away, staring as Grimm continued to struggle. He didn't seem to be making any moves except trying to force his way towards Kim.

'Well, why wouldn't he do that when _Will_ was in the room?' said Wade in frustration. 'It would have been less embarrassing!'

Kim thought back to the battle, to when Grimm had been petrified and what happened after. She saw Maze in her mind, and heard his low voice.

'_Otaatoyiwa_ - _destroy_ _Mi'kksiistsikomma!_'

'I think I know.' said Kim. 'Maze ordered him to destroy _me_. He didn't say anything about you, or anyone else. Maze controls him now - but Grimm can only do what he's _ordered_ to do.'

'And if his orders are to destroy you, then when you're not around, he doesn't do anything.' said Wade. 'Kinda literal, but it makes sense I suppose.'

'So how do we _fix_ it?' said Jade, sounding shrill. 'Reverse fossilization or something?'

Wade stared silently as Grimm tried relentlessly, but uselessly, to break out of the Goo. 'I don't know.' he said. 'Have _you_ got anything?' Jade didn't answer.

After a few quiet minutes, Kim finally spoke. 'I should go up front so he's not coming after me the whole time. When we get back, we'll go with SOP's.' she said. 'Set him up at your place so you can do a proper examination. Without me there, he shouldn't give you any trouble. And we keep looking him over until we find... _anything_.' she ended doubtfully.

'Yeah?' said Jade, her voice waspish. 'And where am I supposed to stay? I'm not bunking with him!' she jerked her head at Wade, who rolled his eyes.

Kim managed a smile. 'How good are you at babysitting?' she said.

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All in all, it was a glum procession which returned to Middleton. They managed to get Grimm from the airport and into Wade's garage. The process was complicated by the fact that Kim could not get near Grimm without setting him off again, so she was unable to help Wade and Jade. But between the pair of them, they jury-rigged Grimm to the bike again, covered him with a tarp, and Kim escorted them back to Wade's.

Kim showed Jade how to get to Ron's, and she took Grimm's place as a guest at the Stoppable residence, though she seemed less than thrilled with the arrangement. And Kim at last returned to her own house. By then it was evening, and she had school the following day.

She couldn't stop herself from having Wade check to see if Monique had arrived home safely. Wade confirmed it, but Kim was not surprised that Monique hadn't left any messages on her voice mail. She wanted to talk to her, to find out if she was all right, but she couldn't think of any way to start a conversation which didn't involve fatal degrees of awkweirdness.

And so after settling back in at home, she went to bed, though sleep came only fitfully. She couldn't shake her mind of the image of Grimm, saving her from Monkey Fist. What had happened when he confronted Maze? What had Maze said to cause Grimm to do something like that? Unfortunately, the only one who could answer those questions was Grimm.

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The following day at school was uncomfortable. Classes and other routines ensured that Kim saw Monique constantly. She seemed all right, but never looked at Kim directly. Her face was hangdog, but Kim couldn't tell if she was depressed or angry, or both.

Bonnie didn't seem any happier than usual to see Kim back from her mission, and despite the normal bumps, spills and tumbles, practice was almost normal.

'So where's your hottie exchange student?' said Bonnie. 'Don't tell me you scared him off already with your _lame_ness.'

'He's... not well.' said Kim, which was true enough.

Bonnie sniffed. 'That seems to happen to a lot of guys who hang out with you.' she said.

Kim winced at the barb. Then she looked off across the gym towards the other practicing cheerleaders. 'Well anyway, have you thought about any Freshmen or Sophomores we could bring onto the squad?' she said, trying to sound innocent.

'What? No!' said Bonnie, her oily manner drying up instantly. 'I... really don't think there's anyone who would fit in....' she said, looking nervous.

'Maybe Tara or Jessica knows someone...' Kim said, rubbing her chin. And to her satisfaction, Bonnie said little else until practice was over.

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Jade was leaning over Ron's bed, putting welders, scanners and other equipment into a carrying case. She was expected at Wade's to help him build a restraining harness for Grimm. Hana was sitting on the bed, staring at her with wide, sparkling eyes.

Jade paused in her packing. '_What_?' she said, staring back at Hana. 'What are you staring at you little rugrat?'

Hana seemed to be taking in Jade's Asian complexion, her dark, rainbow-streaked hair and her eyes. 'Sister!' she said at last.

Jade's face went from annoyed to a helpless smile. 'Aw....' she said, then shook her head as if catching herself. She looked at Hana, her expression now guarded. 'No fair being _cute_.' she said, hastily tossing all the items still laid out on the bed into the case and snapping it shut. 'Well... let's get you back to your mom.' she muttered, holding out her hands. At once Hana bounded into her arms and hugged Jade.

'Sister...' she burbled.

A strange look crossed Jade's face. Then she lowered her eyes and left Ron's room, finding Mrs. Stoppable and pushing Hana into her arms. 'I have to get to Wade's.' she said awkwardly. 'Thanks for letting me crash here.'

'Not at all!' said Mrs. Stoppable with her usual maternal air. 'Besides, Hana seems to have taken quite a shining to you.'

'Sister!' Hana chirped, and Jade again looked torn and uncomfortable.

'You do sort of look alike...' said Mrs. Stoppable. 'But I suppose babies that are young enough resemble lots of people. Are you from Japan?'

'My parents are both Japanese...' Jade mumbled, then at once she stopped, biting her lip and remembering Grimm's normal SOPs. _Never reveal any information about yourself or your family._ 'Look - I gotta go.' she said, snapping her fingers and letting Rueful climb onto her shoulder. She turned back to Ron's room and heaved the carrying case from the bed.

As she left the house, she heard Hana's voice again. 'Sister...!'

Jade closed the door behind her, glancing back as she dragged the case down the sidewalk. _'No fair being cute...'_ she thought, shaking her head.

She was tired and sweaty by the time she got to Wade's house, and wishing she had used the bike instead of leaving it in the Stoppable's garage. The case had only seemed to get heavier over the walk, and her shoulders were lancing with aches before it was over. Rueful had dismounted and was scurrying along beside her.

'You're late.' said Wade, who left the porch of his house as soon as she reached the driveway.

'Oh, don't bother helping with the case.' she said, her every syllable drenched in sarcasm. 'I'm perfectly fiiiiiiine....'

Wade ignored her and used a remote to open the garage door. There was no car, and instead there were a pair of card tables set up with computers mounted on them. Other forms of scanners and equipment were here and there. And in the midst of it all stood Grimm Probable. The Moo Goo had mostly deflated, and some of it had sloughed off completely, forming a tattered pile at his feet.

But at the moment, Grimm was not moving at all. He simply stood there, silent, with his arms down as if he were posing for a sculpture instead of actually _being_ one.

'Does your _boss_ know not to come in here until we say-so?' Jade grumbled, hoisting her case and putting it on a work bench with a loud thud. 'Be a fine thing if we were setting up restraints only to have her stumble onto the scene and send him into another rampage...'

'She _knows_.' said Wade, annoyed.

Jade looked suddenly more eager as she spied an arc-welder, rods and an acetylene torch. 'So... what are you thinking?' she said, taking a welding mask out of her case.

'Some kind of feedback harness - something that combines force fields with counterbalancing.' he said.

'Can't go wrong with Newton.' Jade said, putting on a pair of thick gloves. 'Specs?'

'Ready and waiting.' Wade answered, taking up a set of blueprints from one of the tables.

'Make sure it's all calculated right,' said Jade, 'You guide the cuts and _I'll_ bend the steel!'

Several hours later, they were hoisting Grimm onto a small, circular platform, using chains and the rafters of the garage. The Moo Goo had all been pulled or scraped off. Rueful watched as they put Grimm in position, and then slid several strange looking manacles around his biceps, forearms, his waist, his neck, his thighs, knees and ankles. Each manacle had chains and wires threading into what looked like a surrounding cage with several large, circular protrusions pointing at Grimm from every angle.

Wade hit a switch on the cage and the protrusions glowed blue, humming. The chains clinked and the manacles tightened. Otherwise, nothing seemed to happen. 'Well, that's that.' he said. 'The only way to really test it is when Kim gets here. Is the Moo Goo Guy Gun ready?'

Jade looked over at the gun, which was set up on the workbench. 'It's all fixed up in case this thing fails.' she said.

'It shouldn't.' said Wade confidently. 'The restraints re-route any pressure exerted on them back against the source. The harder someone tries to break out of this, the stronger it gets. Even Hego couldn't power his way out.'

Jade sniffed. 'Hego was never the brightest glow on the comet...' she muttered.

Wade shrugged, heading towards the door leading into the house. 'I'll beep Kim and let her know she can come over as soon as she's ready.' he said.

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Evening was drawing near when Kim finally parked the Sloth by the curb of Wade's house. She realized she had never properly visited Wade's place before, and the surroundings seemed somehow unfamiliar. Rufus seemed happy to be there though, skittering back and forth across her shoulders.

Wade and Jade were standing in front of the garage door waiting for her. Rufus and Rueful growled, then turned their backs on each other. 'How are your parents coping?' said Kim.

Wade smiled knowingly. 'This isn't the first time I've asked them to clear out the garage for a construction project.' he said. 'Are you ready? Once he sees you again, he'll probably try to bust out. Then we'll find out for sure how good the restraints are.'

Kim nodded, following Wade to a side door leading into the garage. Before she reached it though, Kim saw a figure approaching, not walking past the house, but onto the driveway, following them.

Kim stared in surprise. Monique was standing there, wearing mission clothes and looking both sad and determined. 'Hey, girlfriend.' she said. 'Need a hand with anything?'

There was heavy silence. After a minute, Wade cleared his throat. 'Uh.... Jade, why don't you double-check the harness. I'll go to my room and get a little more work done on the second Moo Goo Guy Gun.'

'The harness doesn't need _checking_!' said Jade. 'This is just so they can have some kind of 'Afterschool Special' moment, isn't it?'

Wade's face hardened, and he pointed urgently towards the door leading into the garage. Jade growled, looking up at the sky and slapping her thighs before storming back inside and slamming the door behind her. Wade quietly disappeared into the house.

Now Kim and Monique were standing alone on the driveway. 'Monique,' said Kim softly. 'What are you _doing_ here? I told you to go home.'

'I tried.' she said, looking down. 'But I can't.' She looked back up, and Kim saw thick tears rolling down her cheeks. 'Kim I admit I'm scared to death by all this. But... you're my _best friend_.'

Then they were hugging, and Kim felt her own eyes getting watery as Monique fought to speak through her own tears. 'I kept thinking about my own family, and how I would feel if someone like Monkey Fist came after them.' she said. 'And I think I understand - that being a friend is more than just hanging out and shopping for clothes and doing homework together. It means you stand by them - through the good times _and_ the bad...'

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_Rhonda was in the Lotus position and chanting fast. 'Om om om om om om om!' she said like a broken record. 'Come on inner peace, start working or I'll mop the floor with you! Om om om om om om om....!'_

_'Come on,' said Ron. 'You ought to know by now it doesn't work like that!'_

_'But Grimm's in trouble!' Ronda said, her voice rising. 'I saw Monkey Fist turn him to stone, we have to do something!' She looked down, a tear running down her cheek. 'I just want to help him...' she said._

_Ron put his hand on her shoulder again. 'I know...' he said._

_Then they both started as the mists swirled around them, becoming pale and foggy instead of dark and swirling. Though they seemed dim and colorless, Ron could see Kim and Monique, holding each other. Both their eyes were wet. And as if hearing them over a strong wind, their voices sounded like distant echoes._

'I lost it for a while back there, Kim.' she sobbed. 'I don't know if I've got what it takes to help you through the really tough times..... But I want to try, Kim. I want to _find out_ if I really am a true friend.'

'You _are_, Mon.' Kim sniffed. 'I can't think of anyone else I'd rather have as my wingman.' She paused, wiping her own eyes. 'Well... besides _Ron_.' she said. 'And if you'll help me, we'll find a way to bring him back - and I swear I won't let anything happen to you - I _promise_...'

_Ron put his hands out to thump both of them on the back, but he lurched and started as his hands passed through them, forgetting that he couldn't touch them. 'Ladies - what can the Ron-man say - except a-boo... and a-yah!'_

_He saw Rufus scrambling out of Kim's hip pouch and was surprised to see him looking straight at him and waving._

'Hmm-mmm! Ron!' he squeaked.

_'Little buddy!' Ron said, smiling from ear to ear. 'You can see me?'_

'Mmm-hmm! Mmm-hmm!' he squeaked again, nodding rapidly.

_'Come here, dude!' he said joyously, holding out his cupped hand. At once, Rufus leaped out, but passed through Ron's palm, landing with a rolling tumble on the driveway. 'Sorry!' he said. 'I forgot - the no touchie thing.' But even as he said it, he was trying vainly to pick Rufus up and set him on his feet again. Rufus was staring up at him, rubbing his back with one arm, looking patronizing, and yet overjoyed at the same time._

_Then he remembered Rhonda's suggestion. 'Rufus - I need you to give a message to Kim!' then he paused, biting his lip. Now that the moment had arrived, he wasn't sure what to say. 'Uh... tell her.... I'm OK.' and he paused, thinking how stupid that sounded since he was far from 'OK'. 'And tell her not to give up!'_

_Rufus gave him the OK sign, then began running around in circles in front of Kim and Monique, chattering and pointing desperately at Ron._

Neither Kim or Monique noticed any of this though. They let go of each other, sniffing at the same time and wiping their eyes awkwardly. 'Great to have you back, Mon.' Kim said.

'Yeah...' said Monique, casting around for something to break the tension. She caught sight of Rufus, who was scampering around in front of them. 'What's with him?' she said.

Kim looked down too. 'Not sure.' she said. 'His Naco time doesn't come until later...'

Rufus was hopping and pointing. 'Ron! _ Ron_!' he squeaked.

Kim knelt down, reaching out to pick him up. 'I... think he misses Ron.' she said.

Rufus backed out of her reach, pointing at where he had felt Ron's presence. 'Ron! Ron!'

'I know, I miss him too.' said Kim, trying to pick him up again. 'But that's why we're here - to try and find a way to undo whatever Monkey Fist and Maze did to him - starting with Grimm.'

_'Keep trying little dude!' Ron called. But even as he spoke, his view of the scene before him seemed to be fading, dissolving into a thick, dark mist that surrounded him. 'Aw man!' he said. 'And it was just getting good...!'_

'Wade and Jade have Grimm set up in some kind of cage.' Kim said. 'We're going to... see what we can do for him.'

'Statue therapy.' said Monique, some evenness returning to her voice. 'Badical...'

_Rhonda had lurked uncomfortably in the background, not too keen on watching any Team Possible related mushy stuff, but at Kim's words, she perked up and listened. _'_Grimm's here?' Rhonda said, and she started looking around wildly. 'Stupid mist!' she said. 'I need Rueful to take me to him....'_

And inside the garage, Rueful sat up, his whiskers twitching. Jade was sitting on a bench, looking bored, her eyes half closed and her head drooping. She didn't notice as the weasel slithered through a gap in the door.

_And Rhonda suddenly saw Rueful, squeaking and chittering, looking straight at her. He squeaked and pointed, then seemed to dart off somewhere. She followed after her pet, entering what looked like a blurry, ghostly garage. But she saw Grimm, imprisoned in some wild looking contraption._

_'Jade must have helped with this....' she thought. 'Only she would build something this crazy.'_

_Rhonda ventured closer. She couldn't tell exactly where she was - her vision of the surroundings was too dim. She heard a soft trill and looked down. Rueful was standing next to her and looking up at her. 'Hey little guy...' she said, kneeling down. Again, Rueful trilled, trying to nuzzle his head against her arm, but passing through her like vapor._

_'Oh man, look at us.' she said, a tear dropping from her face. 'I'm like a ghost or something, and Grimm's a statue... This really tanks!' Rueful scratched at the air where her hand was._

_She stood and walked up to Grimm. 'I would have given anything to see you.' she whispered. 'But not like this! Why did you do it, Grimm? I saw you push Kim out of the way, but you didn't do anything to save yourself.'_

_She reached out, but her hand passed through him. A tear ran down her cheek. 'Grimm...' she said, shaking her head. 'You've never given up before in your life! If you gave up because of me - if you can hear me somehow - I need you to keep fighting! You're the only one who can save me Grimm, please....!'_

_The mists were closing around her again, the garage fading. Rhonda had covered her face with her hands, and so she didn't see Grimm as his arm began to move...._

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Jade had fallen asleep on the bench near Grimm's restraint apparatus. She hadn't realized how tired she was until she was left alone in the garage. Her head was half mashed against the wall and her mouth was open with her tongue lolling out in a whispering snore. She still held a wrench in her hand. All was quiet except for the computers that whirred in the background.

Rueful had been chittering, standing near Grimm and looking up at something while he squeaked. Jade woke up, hearing the sounds. 'Whazzah...?' she said blearily. 'Whacha wake me up for you polecat...?' Then she fell silent, seeing a look on Grimm's face of intense effort, or concentration. She saw his mouth open, and heard a voice....

_'Wade! Get in here!!!'_

Wade left his research, hearing Jade's scream. She didn't sound terrified, but there was _something_ in her voice that pierced him with sudden urgency. He awkwardly picked up his half-finished Moo Goo Guy Gun from his workbench and clattered towards the garage.

He expected to find Grimm on the loose and rampaging, but from what he could see when he got in through the door, Grimm was still securely bound. Kim and Monique were also coming in. As soon as Kim entered the garage, Grimm began moving, reaching out one hand and trying to punch her. But the cables and the manacles hummed, and his arm came to a slow stop. He flexed his fingers, clutching at her, but the harness was keeping him in place.

Jade was staring at Grimm as if shocked, and Wade looked back and forth between them. 'What's going on?' he said.

'He _spoke_.' said Jade. 'And he moved - on his own, without Kim around to set him off!'

'What did he say?' said Wade.

'It sounded like... Emmet.' she said. And both she and Wade flinched, hearing a hoarse, grating sound as Grimm's voice sounded as if in response to hers.

'_Em... et.'_ he said, and his voice was stony and flat, yet it sounded as if even speaking these two syllables was taking tremendous effort. Grimm was straining against the metal bands, which creaked dangerously, but held him fast. Jade and Wade were both pursing their lips.

'Emmet?' said Jade, shaking her head. 'Emmet _who_? Grimm please - I don't understand!'

_'Em... et!' _Grimm said, punching his fist at Kim again. _'Em... et!'_

'No wait, look!' said Wade, pulling her back and pointing at Grimm's fist. Grimm's hand was balled up, but the punching motion was off - more like an undercut - and he was only using his left hand. His right arm and both legs were motionless. He looked closer at the left hand, and saw something on the back, just behind his knuckles. There were three strange symbols etched there, hard to see against the greyness of his stone skin, but definitely there.

Wade turned to Kim, his eyes suddenly blazing. 'You were there when Maze brought the Grimm statue to life. What exactly did he do?'

Kim closed her eyes and thought, trying to remember. 'I was kind of punch-drunk at the time.' she said. 'But... I remember Maze was chanting something, and he _touched_ Grimm with his hand.'

Wade's face brightened as if he'd solved a nagging math equation. 'Was it the left hand that he touched?'

'I... think so.' she said, leaning to peer at the symbols. 'What kind of writing is that? I can't read it, but it looks kind of familiar...'

'It ought to.' said Wade, looking closely. 'It's _Hebrew_. You might have seen some of these characters on the scrolls at Ron's Bar Mitzvah.' He sat down at one of the computer desks and was rapidly typing. Jade, not to be outdone, sat at another console and began typing as well.

'Hebrew?' said Kim. 'But Maze's not Jewish, he's Blackfoot. What does it say?'

Wade and Jade looked up from their computers to Grimm's hand and back. Grimm managed one more grating rasp. '_Em... et!'_

'Emet.' said Wade in a whisper. 'That's... the Hebrew word for _truth_.' Then they stood in silence for several seconds.

Both Wade and Jade smacked themselves in the forehead at exactly the same time. '_Golems_!' they both shouted.

'That's gotta be it...' said Wade, hunkering down and typing faster than ever.

'Stupid, stupid... shoulda seen it ages ago!' Jade said, typing in unison with Wade.

'Hello?' said Kim impatiently. 'There are people in this room who _haven't_ figured it out yet!'

'Oh, sorry.' said Wade, turning quickly back to Kim. 'It's an old Hebrew legend, with references to a book on mysticism called the Sefir Yetzirah.'

Kim shook her head. 'I only knew a few Jewish words, like _Bar_ and _Mitzvah_.' she said.

'The early Cabbalists believed that a righteous man could _create_ a living being from the earth itself, fashioned from stone, mud or clay.' said Wade patiently. 'But it was form without spirit - an incomplete creature - a _golem_.'

'Gollum?' said Kim. 'That bug-eyed freak from the _Lord of the Rings_ movie?'

Wade rolled his eyes. 'No, that's pronounced _gah-lum_. The Hebrew mythical creature is pronounced _go-lem_. Like _Shego_-lem. Think of them as living statues - creatures made of earth that can move and act as if they were flesh.'

'And that must be how Maze brought Monkey Fist back in the first place!' Jade chirped. 'I bet anything those symbols are on the back of _his_ left hand too! This is different than what happened when Monkey Fist released the Yono. And that's why beating Maze didn't defeat Monkey Fist or cure his victims - because Maze didn't break the Yono's curse - he just looped around it!'

'But how is _Maze_ doing that?' Kim said. 'He's not a Hebrew mystic, and he's sure not what I'd call a _righteous_ guy....'

'I'm not sure....' said Wade, looking back down at his screens. 'According to these legends, golems can't speak. But Monkey Fist can - and so did Grimm. Unless he found a way to somehow mix good and bad magic...'

'He _did_!' Jade said loudly, looking up from her console. 'Several months ago - he used Grimm's body to channel some of the power of the Great Bear Spirit into himself! It wasn't much, but the Great Bear's power... well I guess you'd call it _good_. It's light and spirit - but Maze's shadow-medicine is all about darkness. When Maze's power and the power of the Great Bear merged, his abilities expanded to mingle light and shadow.'

'And now Maze is using that power to hijack the mysticism of the Sefir Yetzirah.' said Kim. 'He's making an army of _go-lems_ that only obey him.'

'It's worse than that.' said Wade. 'He's teamed up with Monkey Fist, who's still infused with the power of the Yono. For all intents and purposes, he _is_ the Yono. By animating his stone body with the golem enchantment, Maze has given Monkey Fist back his ability to move as well as access to all the Yono's abilities. And Monkey Fist is learning how to _use_ the Yono's power to turn victims into stone - an enchanted stone that seems able to take a lot more punishment.'

'And that means that Monkey Fist and Maze don't even need to _construct_ statues to make into golems.' Kim said darkly. 'By turning their enemies and victims to stone, they'll have a ready-made supply to use as slaves who have no choice but to obey.'

She looked curiously at Wade, a smile lurking at the edge of her lips. 'What happened to not believing in magic?' she said. 'You said a lot of pretty _un-scientific_ things just then and you didn't even bat an eye.'

'Well _d'oy_.' said Wade, shrugging. 'Everyone who's played Dungeons and Dragons, and Everlot knows about golems. It's like Moon Beyond Ios - you just _know_ this stuff.'

'O... K...' Kim said, trying to see the connection between being a sci-fi fan and accepting the existence of magic, 'But what does any of this have to do with the Ultra-Atmospheric Jammer?' said Kim.

'Well _fluh!_' said Jade. 'They're using it to broadcast Monkey Fist's power. That must be how they petrified everyone in Graniton at once - _and_ in Basalton.'

'Well it's great we know what they're _called_ now, but how does that help us?' said Monique, piping in for the first time. She had listened carefully, trying to get caught up, and wondered what the bottom line was. 'Is there any way to _stop_ a golem?'

Kim looked to Wade, wondering if this flash of revelation would continue to yield answers. Wade was reading again. 'According to the legend of the Golem of Prague, you can stop a golem by scratching out the first symbol in the word _emet_.'

'So what are we waiting for?' said Kim, picking up a screwdriver from the workbench. 'If you're right, then we'll know how to stop Monkey Fist, and save everyone they petrified.'

Suddenly Jade was standing between Grimm and Kim. She had her wrench raised as if to hit anyone who got too close, a look of fear and anger in her eyes. '_Get away from him, you harpy_!' she snarled.

Kim was non-plussed for a moment, wondering how a skinny, pint-sized kid like Jade thought she could stop her, and then wondering why she was trying to in the first place. 'What's your _problem_?' Kim said. 'Do you want him cured or not? I personally don't care if he stays a statue, but I thought you'd....'

'I know _you_ don't care!' Jade hissed, interrupting her. 'I suppose you think this is a dream come true! But there are two enchantments at work here - Monkey Fist's and Maze's - so there's three possibilities if you scratch out that letter. One, the separate enchantments will sustain each other and nothing will happen. Two, both spells depend on each other and both will be broken. And three, either one could trump the other and the subject would....' She faltered, putting her hand over her mouth. The corners of her eyes became dewy and she was biting her lip.

Kim turned to Wade. 'Wade help me out here...' she said. 'I don't do geek-speak!'

Wade was shaking his head. 'It all has to do with the words.' he said. '_Emet_ means 'truth', made with the three Hebrew characters Aleph, Mem and Tav. If you strike out Aleph, the character on the far right, then _emet_ becomes _met_. Which means _dead_.'

Kim felt a chill on the back of her neck. 'So... if we did this to a golem made the way Maze and Monkey Fist have done it....'

'It could _kill_ him!' Jade shouted. 'There's too many variables we don't know! A normal golem is made from totally inanimate matter, so when a golem enchantment is broken, they just become normal statues. But Grimm is a _person_ turned into stone and then into a golem - he might just become a statue again. But turning _emet_ to _met_ could also mean his _life_ ends with the golem spell.....'

Wade left the desk to stand in front of Jade. 'If you can think of a test to run which will let us know which one it is, I'd love to hear it!' he said.

'You know I can't!' said Jade, but she didn't get out of the way, and Rueful joined her, climbing up onto Grimm's shoulder and growling at Kim and Wade. 'The only way to test it is on one of the actual victims, but if you think I'm gonna let you use _Grimm_ as your guinea pig...'

'By now Maze and Monkey Fist and everyone they kidnapped have gone to ground again!' Wade shouted. 'Where are we gonna find anyone else?'

Jade was looking more and more agitated. 'I... I don't know!' she said helplessly. 'But I'm the last member of Team Probable - and I have to protect him!' Wade stepped back, seeing an actual tear running down her face. 'I should have bogged off with Grimm when I had the chance!' she said. 'You promised you were going to help me _save_ him, you _promised...!'_

'This may be the only way _to_ save him.' Wade said. 'There's nothing else we can do - we _have to try_.'

Jade didn't answer, but she also didn't get out of the way. The wrench was shaking in her hand, but she dropped it as she heard a rasping sound behind her.

'_Met...'_ said Grimm, still punching at Kim with his left hand.

Jade turned and stared at him while Rueful hopped onto her shoulder. Kim sighed. 'It looks like Grimm decided for us.' she said.

Jade pushed a chair to the harness and stood on it, putting her hands around Grimm's neck as if embracing him. Tears were rolling down her cheeks. It was hard to tell with his stony features obscured, but Grimm seemed to be looking back at Jade. Jade looked totally miserable, a tear fell fell from her eye onto the rough surface of Grimm's shoulder

'_Darn_ it Grimm...' she whispered. 'We've already lost Rhonda... If I lose both of you I don't know what I'll do!' She sobbed, leaning her head against his cold, rocky neck. 'She was like a big sister to me, and.... _darn it_ Grimm you're the best friends I've ever had, you're the _only_ friends I've ever had! If we lose you... What'll I tell your parents? What'll I tell your _sisters_?'

Monique quietly stood next to Kim, looking on the scene with surprise on her face. 'You _sure_ they're evil?' she said. 'I thought there was some kind of rule that bad guys always had to do the double-cross - but they really seem to look out for each other...'

Kim shook her head. 'You expect the bad guys to follow _rules_?' she said. 'But if they have to break a rule, that seems like a good one.' She looked down at the screwdriver in her hands, and sudden doubt was in her mind. What if scratching out the symbol _did_ end Grimm's life? That would mean she would be responsible for essentially _killing_ him. And clearly in her mind, she remembered their fight in her backyard.

_Grimm was blocking her every attack, his infuriatingly smug face mocking her rage. 'You think what you've felt up to now is pain?' he said. 'You think this is suffering? I haven't even started with you yet Kim! Getting rid of your loser BF was just the beginning - by the time I'm through, this cushy life you've got will be finished!'_

_And she finally landed the blow she had been struggling for so long to inflict. He fell to the ground, and unable to stop herself, she had launched herself onto him, striking him savagely. 'You helped them!' she screamed, 'This was all your fault! I hate you!!'_

She shook her mind back to the present, but didn't feel any less conflicted. She had wanted Grimm defeated, arrested and imprisoned; to be justly punished for his crimes. And she had wanted to be the person who brought him to justice. But this was different. And she reflected bitterly that this somehow felt like yet another of Grimm's head-gaming tricks - deliberately maneuvering her into a position where she might have to sacrifice everything she ever stood for - and take a life.

But what choice did they have? If Monkey Fist and Maze could truly use their Jammer to strike large areas, then any number of places could be at risk at any time. And she felt a prickle of fear, wondering if even now their plan was to strike Middleton itself. They couldn't find any more golems to test on, and they needed answers before more people were petrified and turned into golem slaves. They might even take her family, or Monique's....

Kim walked forward and gently led Jade down from her chair. She was sobbing, blindly stumbling as Kim pulled her next to Wade. Wade looked utterly terrified as Jade collapsed onto his shoulder, bawling uncontrollably. 'Kim!' he said helplessly. 'She's a _villain_! And she's _crying_! What the heck am I supposed to _do_?'

'_Comfort_ her!' Kim whispered.

'Um... there, there.' said Wade, stiffly patting Jade's shoulder while she cried. 'There, there, there, there....'

Jade paused, and there was a heavy sniffling, followed by the rather wet sound of nose being blown. 'Aw, _jeez_!' said Wade, looking over his shoulder with revulsion.

And as Kim stood in front of him, Grimm renewed his straining against the harness. Kim could hear them creaking, but they seemed to be holding. Grimm's left hand punched out, but halted because of the shackles. He kept his fist held out, half looking as if he were trying to strike her, half as if he was deliberately holding out his hand for her.

She held the screwdriver firmly, her hands lowered to the shackles which held his left arm. On the back of his hand, the three characters showed faintly against his stone skin. This would either bring Grimm back, or be her final revenge on him. She had wanted to hurt him after their fight. But now she wished she was a thousand miles away, and she couldn't stop herself from remembering their first encounter in Stafford Base.

_'Who are you?' Kim asked, staring at the newcomer._

_'Grimm.' he said, smiling broadly. 'Grimm Probable.'_

She reached down, planted the blade, and gouged the screwdriver with all her strength across the _Aleph_ symbol. The tiny groove left by the screwdriver obscured its shape, and at once all three symbols began to glow with a faint yellow light. The light faded, and then it was as if the signs were composed of a substance that was burning away. Smoke rose in snake-like tendrils from his hand. Grimm let out a terrible scream and Jade bit her knuckles. The stone on him seemed to be dissolving, melting away like a layer of ice.

Grimm collapsed within the restraining harness, breathing heavily. Jade was staring at him and trembling. For some time, there was silence. Then Grimm slowly raised his head, looking around until his eyes fell on Kim.

'So... I _owe_ you one?' he said, staring at her and gritting his teeth.

Kim stared back at him, 'Yeah.' she said quietly.

Grimm sighed and shook his head. 'That _tanks_....' he said, and then he fell unconscious.

Coming Soon:  
Chapter 17

_In life, this thing is well known for its constancy...  
What is it?_


	19. Ch 18: Change

A Friend In Darkness  
All Things Probable 3  
A Kim Possible Fanfiction  
by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and its affiliates, etc. etc.

Chapter 18  
Change

_Or: Control Alt Shift_

Kim quietly entered Wade's room. She had viewed it so many times from the other end of Wade's webcam, that it seemed strange to find herself standing in real life before the very backdrop she had seen through her Kimmunicator. Wade was silhouetted against his computer monitor, typing quickly. He turned and nodded at her before looking back at his screen. 'So how's the patient?' she said.

Wade brought up several files, spread across three monitor screens. 'Grimm's back to normal as far as I can tell - at least normal for him. None of him is stone anymore - bio readings are all in the green. He's perfectly healthy.'

Kim sniffed and shook her head. 'So he's officially back. That's just _great_.'

Wade smiled. 'Well, he wasn't really gone all that long. But now that he's back, maybe we can get some more answers. I'm still not clear how he managed to communicate with us as a golem - and there are other questions too.'

'He hasn't spilled?' Kim said. 'It's been nearly a day since we released him from the spells.'

Wade shrugged. 'He said he wasn't ready yet.'

Kim frowned. 'He's had plenty of time to rest up. He even came to classes at school. Once today is over, he's got to start talking.'

Wade looked interested. 'He went to _school_?' he said. 'How was he?'

Kim sighed.

_Kim had attended each of her classes with Grimm following after her. But unlike his first day, when he had been energetic and snarky, today he had seemed more like a zombie. His face remained expressionless, his eyes downcast, as if he no longer cared about what was happening around him. He only seemed distantly active in following her._

_This of course had made Bonnie even more interested, but he utterly ignored her while he sat dormant on the bleachers during cheer practice, despite the fact that she was putting on her best moves._

_Later at Club Banana, he was so silent and still during Kim's shift that she wondered if he had really been released from the golem enchantment._

'He didn't do... anything.' Kim said. 'I mean he took notes and stuff, but... there was no conniving as far as I could see.'

'Weird.' said Wade. 'And even weirder that it seems more suspicious when he's acting _normal _than it does when he's up to something.'

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Jade threaded her way around Kim Possible's house, looking for Grimm. She had been worried about him ever since he had been freed. Not worried because of anything he was doing - but because of the things he _wasn't_ doing. He had hardly spoken once he'd woken up after his collapse in Wade's garage. He had been almost _docile_ while they conducted their medical scans.

Jade had gotten a room for herself at the Middleton Plaza, despite odd looks from the clerk and staff when she checked in alone. Grimm had returned to Ron's house. But Jade hadn't had to put up with Grimm asking if she'd taken the normal safeguards when arranging her room. She had been obliged to do it on her own initiative, for Grimm didn't seemed to care anymore.

The school day after his release from the enchantment was over, and Jade was getting anxious. It wasn't like Grimm to do anything without a plan, and he hadn't called to establish one. She felt too awkward knocking on the door to the Stoppables or the Possibles to ask if they knew where he was. Instead, she took out her scanner and did a mid-range sweep.

Grimm's communicator signal wasn't at Stoppable's house, nor was it inside the Possible house. But she zeroed in on it, holding a steady position about forty yards behind Kim's place. Jade skirted around the yard, behind the garage, and found herself approaching a wooded area across a grassy stretch behind Kim's back fence.

Grimm was sitting on the rim of a slight rise which formed a sweeping incline that went down into the glade. Rueful was scurrying around, but looking at Grimm occasionally. Before Jade was within twenty feet, she heard his voice.

'What do you want, Jade?' he said, and he sounded tired and annoyed.

She approached timidly, and saw he was rubbing a band of gauze wound tightly around his left hand. 'Just checking in.' she said. 'How's the arm?'

Grimm sniffed, then pulled the gauze back. Jade winced as she saw an ugly cut on the back of his hand, along with three red weals that looked like burn marks - each of which corresponded to the symbols Maze had branded onto him when he was made of stone. He pulled the gauze back into place and turned away, looking into the shadows under the trees.

'Well you've been in worse.... _scrapes_.' she said, with a weak chuckle. Grimm didn't answer, and the silence stretched out. Finally Jade couldn't wait any longer. 'Look, Possible and her gang keep pestering me. They want to know exactly what happened - and frankly I'm kinda curious myself.'

Again, Grimm said nothing. Jade pressed on. 'The _'leave-me-alone-I've-been-through-a-lot' _routine is only gonna work for so long, Grimm.' she said. 'Talk to _me_ before you talk to them if you want. You know I'm on your side - I want to _help_.'

'You can't help.' Grimm said quietly. 'No one can help.'

'How do you _know_?' said Jade, frustrated. 'What did Maze say to get you all mopey like this?'

Grimm sighed. 'He said... he couldn't bring back Rhonda. He said the shadow-medicine that banished them is irreversible.'

Jade gasped. She almost reached out to put a hand on his shoulder, but stopped, biting her knuckles. 'He... he could have been lying, you know what a snake he is.' she said.

'He's _not_ lying.' Grimm said. 'I could tell.'

'But... forcing him was our only hope.' Jade said. 'Unless the Great Bear gets off his kiester.'

'Yeah.' Grimm nodded.

'So.... what do we do?' Jade asked.

There was another silence. 'I don't know.' Grimm said at last. 'I don't know anything anymore. I only know that.... I can't give up.'

'Why?' said Jade, and she was surprised to feel a tear rolling down her cheek. 'If we've really played out everything we could do... then that's it, isn't it? It's over...'

'No.' said Grimm firmly. 'I _saw_ her, Jade.'

'What...?' Jade said.

Grimm's eyes were closed and his head was down, as if he didn't want to look Jade in the eye. 'It happened just when Monkey Fist hit me with his power.' he said. 'I saw Rhonda - I swear it was her. She was reaching out to me - calling my name.'

Jade bit her lip, trying to think of a sensitive way to ask the obvious question. 'You're sure you weren't....'

'Just seeing things?' Grimm said, with a mirthless chuckle. 'Or just imagining something I _wanted_ to see? I thought maybe that was it. Except I saw her again - when I was a golem, trussed up in Wade's garage.'

'But..._ how_?' said Jade. 'You were made of stone - animated by Maze! Are you saying you could still..._ see and hear_?'

'A true golem doesn't have... a _spirit_ for lack of a better word.' said Grimm. 'I do - so do all the people Maze and Monkey Fist have shanghaied. They're imprisoned and enslaved, but they're still _alive_. I know it because that's what happened to me. And I'm telling you, I saw Rhonda again in the garage.' He paused, and his voice became almost soft. 'She was begging me not to give up. She said... I was the only one who could save her.'

Jade sat down next to him, her head whirling. 'But _how_ are we gonna save her?'

Grimm shook his head helplessly. 'Beats me.' he said. 'But we have to think of _something_. She's counting on us - and we have to give it our best shot.'

Jade sat quietly next to him. After an uncomfortably silent minute, she spoke again, looking shy and embarrassed. 'Uh, Grimm?' she said, her voice hesitant. 'You said you could see and hear things when you were a golem. How _much_ do you remember?'

Grimm paused, looking at her. 'Everything.' he said. 'It was like... when you're dreaming, and you _know_ it's a dream. You know you should be able to control it, but you can't. But... I could see and hear it all.'

Jade looked even more uncomfortable. 'That _stuff_ I said before they broke the enchantment,' she said, her voice sinking lower. 'You know I was only saying that to... mess with Kim and Wade, right? I mean, it's not like I... like I _love_ you guys or anything...'

Grimm sighed, putting his hand on Jade's shoulder. 'Yeah... I know.' he said softly. 'You did great, Jade.'

The sun was sinking lower as a cool breeze waved the grass around them. 'Well, if we're gonna save Rhonda, we still need some kind of plan.' said Jade. 'And the only reason we even came out _here_ in the first place was because you hoped hanging out with Kim would lead you to Maze. Now you say that plan was a bust. Does that mean we can stick a fork in Middleton?'

Grimm stared at the trees, deep in thought. 'Yeah.' he said. 'We're done here.'

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Kim had arranged for Monique and Wade to come over that evening for an 'intervention' in which they hoped to break Grimm's wall of silence. Once they had all arrived, she was surprised when Grimm and Jade showed up on their own as if they were the ones who arranged the meeting.

As he spoke, Kim watched him closely. Grimm seemed to have fully recovered, at least physically. Though Kim thought he seemed somehow quieter and _grimmer_.

Grimm told them everything Maze had said during their encounter in Basalton, and his subsequent visions of Rhonda. Kim was struck with a momentary jealousy - how come Grimm, a total jerkface, had seen his GF while she hadn't seen Ron? Wade looked doubtful, Monique looked hesitant. Rufus and Rueful both looked hungry.

'So your brilliant plan was a total waste?' said Kim. She was half gloating in her voice, pleased to see a chip of Grimm's untouchable shell flaked away, but saddened because in this one matter, she had secretly hoped he would succeed. 'Not even Monkey Fist and Maze can bring back Ron and Rhonda?'

'At least not that _they_ know.' said Grimm. 'As powerful as they've become, they still have their limits. There are things about their powers that maybe they haven't guessed - which means there may still be a way to bring Rhonda back.'

'And what way is that?' said Monique, as always keeping things linear.

Grimm looked embarrassed. 'I don't know yet.' he said.

'I want answers!' said Kim. '_How_ did you know to tip us off about the golem enchantment? How did you know breaking it would cure you? And if you couldn't do anything without orders from Monkey Fist or Maze, how did you speak to us?'

Grimm glared at her. 'In the order you asked,' he said curtly, 'I knew it was a golem enchantment because I saw exactly what they _did_ to me. When Maze branded me, I had the best seat in the ballpark to see the marks and guess what they meant. The legend of the golem is obscure, but it's not exactly a secret. And I _didn't_ know that breaking the enchantment would cure me, any more than you did. But you said it yourself - there was no other way to test it. For all I knew I could have wound up a lawn ornament. But it was worth the risk and now we have more information than we had before. As to _how_ I spoke to you... that wasn't me. It was Rhonda.'

He looked away, his face slightly reddened. 'When she asked me not to give up, she... gave me strength. I can't explain it any other way. Knowing she was counting on me, it gave me the power I needed to act.' He looked at the back of his hand, where the gauze was still wrapped tight over his wounds. 'Even so, it wasn't easy. A golem can't disobey his master's commands, and it took all the will power I had to even speak that one word without being ordered. That's why I passed out once I was freed. When I said _all_ my will power, I meant it. But I could never have done it without her.'

Kim ran her hand through her hair. 'But for all that, we're still back at square one.' she said. She didn't want to seem insensitive, but she also was struggling through her mistrust and dislike towards Grimm. 'No way to bring Ron back ourselves. No way to get Monkey Fist to do it. And no way to even _find_ them. And now that you're not a golem anymore, we don't even have any evidence to give to Global Justice.'

At the mention of Global Justice, Grimm snorted and rolled his eyes. 'Just as well they _don't_ get involved.' he said. 'What could they do anyway?'

'They've got resources and manpower.' said Kim. 'And heavy artillery, if it comes to a golem smack down.'

Both Grimm and Jade laughed softly. 'Heavy artillery won't count for _beans_.' Jade said.

'Why _not_?' Kim answered.

Grimm's eyes narrowed. 'Possible, are you really that clueless? You've got a ton of geek friends. Your cousin's a geek. Your hacker's a geek. You're _dating_ a geek. And you're saying _none_ of it's rubbed off on you? Ask your techie, _he_ knows what I'm talking about.'

Kim turned to Wade, who looked abashed, but nodded in agreement. 'He's right Kim.' he said. 'Even a geek newbie knows a golem can't be damaged by anything except _magical_ weapons.'

'Word up!' said Jade. 'Why do you think everything you've thrown at them bounces off like ping-pong balls on a tank? Unless Global Justice has a stash of +1 bullets, they'd be nothing but meat on the table.'

'But the Moo Goo gun can hold them in place.' said Kim. 'We can use it to glue them down, then scratch out the _Aleph_ symbol, just like we did with you.'

'In a combat sitch, that won't be as easy as it sounds.' said Jade. 'Who knows how many golems they've got in total? We've only got so much goo, and It takes time to synthesize more. I wouldn't want the Moo Goo gun to be our only hope in a pinch - would you?'

But a sudden thought occurred to Kim. 'Magical weapons.' she said quietly. 'What about the Lotus Blade?'

'There were only two persons on Earth who could use it.' said Grimm. 'Monkey Fist...'

'...and Ron.' said Kim, gritting her teeth. 'But Rufus has Mystical Monkey Power too. When Ron 'fessed up about what happened at Yamanouchi, he said that Rufus used the Lotus Blade to bowl through a bunch of Monkey Ninjas.' At this, Rufus jumped onto the table, striking a heroic pose and nodding eagerly.

Grimm shook his head. 'He's a scrapper, yes. But he doesn't have enough Mystical Monkey Power to unlock the full potential of the Lotus Blade, and he can't generate enough force to break a golem.' Rufus stuck out his tongue, looking peevish.

'So where does that leave us?' said Monique. 'You've shot down a lot of ideas, but I don't hear you coming up with any!'

'That's because I don't _have_ any.' Grimm snapped. 'All the stuff you've suggested might be enough to slow Maze and Monkey Fist down - _if_ we could find them. We might even make a good fight of it - but with Maze's shadow magic, and with Monkey Fist using the Yono's power, I don't think it'll be enough to stop them.'

A heavy silence fell around the table. Everyone was looking down, deep in thought. 'So... what then?' said Monique at last.

Kim looked up, her eyes firmer. 'For now, let's sleep on it.' she said. 'We'll hold another jam session tomorrow.'

Grimm didn't answer.

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The door closed behind Grimm and Jade as they left Kim's house. Mr. Dr. Possible strolled by, newspaper unfolded. 'Finally - the bad guys have gone home for the day.' he said. 'Let's try to forget about them with some villain ice cream!'

Kim, Wade and Monique stared.

He caught himself, slapping his forehead. 'Ah... _vanilla_ ice cream.' he ended sheepishly before making his way towards the kitchen.

The three stayed in the entryway to the house in a mini-huddle. 'So do you buy anything he said?' Kim muttered.

Wade shrugged. 'This is _Grimm_ we're talking about.' he said. 'I kind of assume everything he says is a half-truth, but I can't see any reason why he'd be lying about this. Maze and Monkey Fist put _him_ through the wringer too.'

'All I got from that meeting was _he's got nothin'_.' said Monique. 'So maybe we don't need him anymore.'

'That's a positive thought.' said Kim, smiling.

'But the things he said about Ron,' said Wade. 'That would mean we really _can't _bring them back...'

'That I _don't_ buy.' said Kim firmly. 'There has to be a way - and we'll find it.' Wade and Monique didn't answer, but nodded. 'For now, go home and rest up.' she continued. 'Let's see what ideas we can make _without_ their help.'

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As they left Kim's house, Grimm and Jade made their way back to Ron's while Jade used her communicator to call a cab. 'So...' she said hesitantly. 'Why didn't you tell her?'

'Tomorrow.' said Grimm. 'Pack everything up and make sure you wipe any and all electronic evidence that we were here.' he sighed. 'If I'm gonna start flying by the seat of my pants, I at least want to make sure no one can tell where we started from.'

'You know you can count on me, right?' said Jade, though she looked hesitant.

'You're sure you want to stick this one out?' Grimm said. 'From now on, there _is_ no plan. I don't know any more what's going to happen than the garbage collector. I have no idea when or how I'm gonna fix this - I only know that I have to keep going.'

Jade breathed out, tapping her foot. 'Pant seat technology - my favorite kind.' she said.

Grimm almost looked grateful. 'OK then.' he said. 'If you're really sure, then it's time for you to put it on.'

Jade blinked. 'Put... _what_ on?'

Grimm smirked. 'The last outfit you'll ever need.'

A shirt, pants and a pair of gloves and shoes later, Jade stepped out of the bathroom at Ron's house, looking very self-conscious. Her blue shorts, her shirt and her bracelets were all gone. Instead, she wore a mission outfit identical to Grimm's and Rhonda's, only fitted to her size. She turned around with her hands on her hips. 'Does this thing make my butt look big?' she said.

Grimm sighed. 'Jade, you're skinny as a rail - you look fine. Besides, if you're going to keep doing field work you need something more practical.'

'I know, it's just... _different_.' she said, jogging in place for a second or two. 'These things are baggy, it feels like I'm wearing Hammer pants! And I'm used to my sandals, I can't wiggle my toes like I used to!'

'Give it a day and you won't even notice they're there.' said Grimm. 'Trust me.'

Jade shot him a wincing stare. 'Isn't that what got us here in the first place?'

Grimm looked deadpan back at her. 'Your cab's here,' he said. 'Let's close up shop.'

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Kim had said good night to her family and gone to bed. But as she prepared for sleep, the words Grimm had spoken kept circling through her mind.

_'He told me he can't bring them back. That there's no way to bring them back.'_

She hadn't flinched when he said it, and hadn't let anything on to Wade or Monique. But now that there was no one there but herself, the words sank deep into her. The thought that it might be true, that she would never see Ron again, spawned a feeling of deepest loss. It had been just over two weeks since Ron's disappearance. But it felt like much longer.

She had tried not to think much of how Ron might be feeling. She didn't know what he was going through. Did it _hurt_ being where he was? Was he frightened? And if he really was stuck there forever....

She stood with her hands clenched, her fingers trembling. _'I have to be strong.'_ she thought. _'I have to be the strong one so Wade and Monique won't lose hope. I'm Kim Possible - I can do anything. I never lose - I never let anything get to me and I can't let anyone see me being weak....'_

She saw the picture of Ron on her computer desk. Somehow his eyes and his smile seemed sad.

_'....there's no way to bring them back.'_

Kim checked to make sure the blinds were drawn, checked to make sure the door leading up to the loft was locked. Then she laid down on the mattress and cried herself to sleep.

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_Ron saw a brief, blurry vision of Kim lying on her bed. It was as if the scene was on a railway car that sped by, giving him only brief impressions. 'There goes another one!'_ _he said, smiling._

_'I saw Grimm and Jade a while back too!' said Rhonda. 'Did you get Rufus to send a message to Kim?'_

_'I told him, but I'm not sure how he'll carry it on.' Ron said. 'He could write for a while after he got hit with the brain booster, but that wore off a long time ago...'_

_Rhonda clucked her tongue. 'Well, if we can learn how to 'hang around' when we see them again, maybe we can figure something out. Got any more positive vibe ideas?'_

_'Well there's one....' he said. 'But it's kind of unusual. One of the trust-building exercises at Yamanouchi was one where you had to agree with everyone in your squad.'_

_'Waitasec!' said Rhonda. 'Trust-building exercises? At a NINJA school?'_

_'Hey, they do bushido stuff too!' he said defensively. 'They're not all about fighting and sneaky-ness!'_

_Rhonda rolled her eyes._

_'Well, when I was there I gave them my ideas to 'Ron-inate' the exercise. I had them centralize it by building a yurt at one end of the courtyard...'_

_'What's a yurt?' said Rhonda. 'That doesn't sound like a real word.'_

_'It's like a hut, but it sounds cooler.' said Ron. 'But anyone who was in the yurt was only allowed to say positive things and agree with other people. I called it the yo-yurt.'_

_Rhonda winced, then sighed and ran a hand across her forehead. 'That was a long way to go for a tired joke.' she said. Ron took up the lotus position, motioning her to do the same opposite him. She sighed and crossed her legs beneath her, face-to-face with him._

_'Deep down, you seem like a pretty nice girl.' Ron said, though he looked uncomfortable._

_Rhonda blushed and looked away. 'Shut up...' she said._

_'Ah-ah-ah! Positive things, or agreement!' Ron said. 'You want to see Grimm again, don't you?'_

_Her face flushed even redder and she still didn't meet his eye. 'Yo.' she muttered._

_'Your turn.'_

_She sighed, casting her eyes back and forth, then said haltingly, 'It was... cool of you to help me out while we're here.'_

_'Yo!' Ron said, smiling. 'I thought your bear powers were totally kickin', right up until that whole banishing thing.'_

_'Yo.' said Rhonda, pumping her fist half-heartedly in the air. 'Your monkey mojo isn't bad either. Has Kim ever seen you using it?'_

_'Yyyyyo....' Ron answered, shaking his head, then he got a mischievous gleam in his eyes. 'Are you and Grimm going steady?'_

_Rhonda buried her face in her hands, but the skin that showed between her fingers was beet red. She also shook her head. 'Yo.'_

_'Would you LIKE to?' he said slyly._

_Her voice became very weak. 'Yo.' she said, nodding. 'What about you and pom-pon?' she said quickly, as if trying to move the focus off herself. 'Do you like her?'_

_'Yo!' said Ron firmly. 'Totally yo!'_

_'Are you in love with her?'_

_Ron's jaw went slack as a thousand memories flashed through his mind in an instant. Meeting Kim in pre-K. Playing games and hanging out with her all through elementary and Junior High. Sticking by her side as she was accidentally called on an odd job through her website. A job which somehow led to years of adventures too bizarre to have imagined. Seeing Kim swept off her feet by Eric, then having her in his own arms on the dance floor at Junior Prom. Then the press of her lips against his. He liked her - he always had liked her._

_But did he love her? Somehow, having the question sprung on him like that made him hesitate. He had been totally comfortable with an unspoken understanding between Kim and himself, that they really, really liked each other. And the next step after that... Was it love? And was it something he was ready for?_

_'I....' he said, and was surprised to feel his hands shaking. 'I.... yo.' he said. Then he blinked, as if somehow, something he had always known but never admitted suddenly clunked into place within him. 'Yo....' he said again, wistfully._

_Now Rhonda was the one who looked sly, reaching across and punching him on the shoulder. 'Does she love you?'_

_Then again, a memory lanced through his mind. He and Kim were trying to stop a military train that was speeding towards destruction. The previous few days after being hit with the memory device, Kim had gradually recalled all her memories - except about one thing. But on the train she suddenly looked at him and said, 'I remember that you're my boyfriend - and that... I think I love you!'_

_At the time, he had been so glad to have her memory back that he hadn't considered exactly what she said. But now that Rhonda had asked, he noted that Kim hadn't said 'I love you', only 'I think I love you'. Was it just because they had been too shy to say it flat out, or was it something else? Was he over-thinking things? Or deep down, was Kim not sure if she really loved him? _

_'I.... don't yo.' he said, shrugging. And somehow, the mists surrounding him seemed to become darker._

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The next morning, Monique turned up at Kim's house soon after breakfast and they both waited from Grimm. When it got to only five minutes before school started, Kim lost patience. 'Where _is_ he?' she said, pacing back and forth while Rufus stared at her.

'Chill, girl.' said Monique. 'The fact that he's annoying you when he's not even here shows he's totally back to normal.'

But Kim was throwing open the front door, finally seeing Jade and Grimm coming up the sidewalk. 'Where have you _been_?' she snarled. 'You may not care about missing classes, but I do!'

'I'm not going back.' Grimm answered. There was no sarcasm or snarkiness in his voice - he was cold and matter-of-fact in his tone, which made Kim pause.

'What's the sitch?' she said.

'The sitch is our deal is over.' said Grimm. 'We'll be out of your hair in a few hours.'

'Excuse me?' said Kim, storming up to him. '_Over_? What makes you think the deal is over?'

Grimm frowned. 'The deal was I hang out here until we found Maze. We did that. Now that we know he can't bring them back, there's no point...'

'The _deal_ was put in place _until we get Ron and Rhonda back_.' said Kim firmly. 'They back yet?'

Grimm stared, and Jade looked back and forth between them nervously.

'Until Ron is home safe, we're sticking to you like cheese on Naco.' said Kim. 'It was a pain and a half putting up with you, and I'm returning the favor until the deal is done.'

Grimm rubbed the back of his wounded left hand, staring hard into Kim's eyes. 'If that's what you want, then you'd better be prepared for _changes_.' he said.

'I'm prepared for anything because I can _do_ anything.' said Kim. 'What changes?'

'Changes to the way you normally operate.' said Grimm. 'Here's the skinny - right now, Maze and Monkey Fist are probably wondering how we managed to track them down to Basalton. They also know you have weapons that can immobilize their golems. And more importantly, they know _we've_ been working together.'

'Why should that make a difference?' said Kim.

'They were fine when they thought we were separate - feuding - and flailing around in the dark. But now they'll start thinking of us as an organized threat.' He looked up and there was a dangerous gleam in his eyes. 'A threat they'll want _dealt_ with. They've proved they can make targeted strikes using Monkey Fist's powers. It's only a matter of time before they target _you_.'

Kim felt a sinking in her gut. As much as she hated to admit it, Grimm was probably right. 'What can we do?' she said. 'Wade's system lets us know when they're using their Jammer - but we haven't figured out a way to stop it yet or track them down to their hideout.'

'From _your_ house, there's nothing we _can_ do.' said Grimm. 'You're too high profile. _Everyone_ knows where you live. And with their Jammer, they could petrify your whole neighborhood to get to you. I was leaving so they couldn't get both of us at once, but if you insist on sticking close, then our only option is to drop off the radar and go somewhere they _can't _find us.'

Monique stared at him, looking annoyed. 'That so, Mr. Big-Bad-Boy?' she said, 'And where exactly might that be?'

A sly look returned to Grimm's face. 'A place that can't be targeted by a satellite system because it's not on the map.' he said. 'A place I can make adequate preparations, and for that I'm gonna need my peeps.'

'Wait a minute,' Monique said, doing the time-out sign. 'You got _peeps_?'

'I got peeps.' he answered.

'Are they _good _peeps?' she asked.

'They're good.' he said, nodding.

Monique looked suspicious. 'And... they're not _evil_?'

Grimm smirked. 'Oh, they're evil. But they're _good_.'

Monique's face collapsed into a confused expression. 'OK, _what_ the heck are we talking about?' But Grimm was already heading towards the door.

'Hold it!' said Kim, going after him. 'I said we were _both_ in on this to the end, and I meant it!'

'Suit yourself.' said Grimm, walking out and motioning Jade to follow.

'Where are we going?' Kim said angrily.

'_Home_.' he answered, and left Kim's house without another word.

Coming Soon:  
Chapter 19

_When you don't know what I am, I am everything.  
When you know what I am, I am nothing.  
What am I?_

_Author: Here it comes - something many people who have followed the 'All Things Probable' series have been asking about for a long time. Where do Grimm and Rhonda live? What are their families like? What are their schools like? What do they have to put up with every day? _

_Be there as role reversals continue, with Kim as the fish out of water in Grimm's hometown! If you liked seeing Grimm hanging out in Middleton, you'll love THIS...._

_Don't miss the next chapter as questions galore are answered, only to be replaced by even more!_

_PS - visit the Kim Possible discussion thread on to vote in the 4th annual Golden Fannie awards for your favorite Kim Possible fan fiction stories! If you've enjoyed this story so far, it's eligible for nomination in a few categories, including 'Best Novel Length Story'. Head over to the Kim Possible discussion forum__ For instructions on how to nominate your faves, along with submission instructions and a list of categories to choose from!_

_  
PS: Vote Grimm Probable 'Best Villain'! :)_


	20. Ch 19: A Riddle

A Friend In Darkness

All Things Probable 3

A Kim Possible Fanfiction

by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and its affiliates, etc. etc.

Chapter 19  
A Riddle

_**Part I: Welcome to Riddleton**_

Kim kept a firm grip on the steering wheel of the _Sloth_ as she followed the _Ksikkihkíni_ through a network of highways, off ramps, back roads and thoroughfares so baffling that she wondered if any of them led anywhere at all. But Grimm seemed to know where he was going, and Kim had to stay on her toes to keep him in sight as he didn't give any warnings or direction through his communicator when he changed course.

They had been driving for at least eighteen hours, though Kim no longer had any clear sense of how much actual distance they had traveled. As they veered onto another winding road, Kim glanced towards the back seat, where Wade and Monique were buckled in. Rufus lounged in the front passenger seat with his head behind his hands, an empty Nacho caddy next to him, and looking quite content.

'Where _are_ we, Wade?' Kim said, for what felt like the hundredth time.

Wade answered with as much patience as if she _had_ asked a hundred times. 'I don't know.' he said. He was fumbling with his communicator and a road atlas at the same time, his head shaking as he looked out the windows, then at the maps, then at his console in a dizzying cycle.

'How can you not know?' said Kim. 'We've got GPS, we should have an exact fix.'

'The satellites aren't tracking us here for some reason.' Wade said. 'The only times I've been blocked this heavily were by high-end government and military scramblers.'

'Is that what's happening now?' said Kim.

'Could be.' Wade answered. 'I'm getting the same kind of 'national security' vibe. I've got a representation of the road layout, that's about it. Sending it to your console.'

Kim looked at the dashboard readout as a grid of green lines against black scrolled up. The number of roads shown seemed unusually high, but she could discern a pattern as it zoomed out a little more. 'It looks... kind of like a question mark.' she said. 'Weirdness.'

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On the _Ksikkihkíni_, Jade kept her arms around Grimm's waist, despite the seatbelt. She had ridden around on her hover-platform rather recklessly, but found herself more nervous with someone else behind the wheel. She sighed, getting even more nervous as they neared their destination. 'OK, I have to ask again,' she said. 'What the heck are you thinking, letting Possible and her gang _follow_ us home? Are you blankety-blank-blank _crazy_?'

'Don't sweat it.' said Grimm. 'You know all the safeguards we've got in place - hiding the physical location was just the first tier.'

Jade fidgeted. 'Regardless, the first ring of defense will be _down_ if we let them stay. Why let them in at all?'

Grimm shrugged as the road kept zooming by. 'I admit part of me wants it to happen just so Kim can enjoy a taste of 'turnabout soufflé'. But there are other reasons.'

'Such as?'

'Same as before, pretty much.' Grimm answered. 'She's lucky. And a little luck never hurts.'

Jade wasn't mollified. 'She's got Wade in tow.' she said, shaking her head. 'And they're gonna blab the location to Global Justice, or call in a media rent-a-mob...'

'I keep telling you - don't worry about Global Justice.' said Grimm. 'And as for the media... you're forgetting Leigh.'

'If Kim yells loud enough, _someone_ will listen.' said Jade.

'I've got some ideas on that too.' said Grimm, smirking under his helmet. 'If Possible gets the itch to call the cops, there's always the seppuku scenario. Did you set everything up before we left?'

'Yes.' said Jade, sounding resentful. 'But I'd feel better if I knew we didn't _have_ to use it.'

'Me too.' said Grimm. 'But at least now, the option is open. And if Possible uses this as a chance to make trouble, she'll be in for one whale of a surprise. Heads up, we're almost there...'

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Several straight minutes of trying to get a fix on their exact location through satellite and GPS brought no results. Wade eventually had to concede that without a more powerful transmitter, he wouldn't be able to get a lock on where they were.

To cover the silence that followed, Kim tried turning on the radio, but 'Another Holiday' was playing, and the chorus filled the car.

_Distant lands are not so far away!_

_I don't know why we don't go!_

_Take my hands, I'll show you the way!_

_Pack your bags and sail away!_

Kim shut off the radio with an angry glare as Grimm's bike scudded across the road in front of them. 'Next exit.' Grimm's voice came over the car's sound system. 'Just keep doing what you normally do and stay a few steps behind me.'

'Rrrrrr!' Kim snarled under her breath.

'Don't rise to him girl - chill!' said Monique.

Kim growled, but turned the _Sloth _onto the next exit, following after Grimm. As they took the exit, Kim saw a large metal sign on the side of the road, colored green with the same reflective letters used on interstate signs. In huge, bold print it read, _"Welcome to Riddleton - Population ?????? And Still Growing!"_

As they followed Grimm into the city and towards the unknown, Kim reflected again on the events which had led her to this crossroads...

_**Part II: Farewell To Middleton**_

_'Kim?' said her mother. 'Did I hear you right? You're going into... hiding?'_

_'That's such a loaded word.' said Grimm from off to the side._

_The Possible and Stoppable families were gathered around the table in the kitchen at Kim's house. Grimm had consented to come back momentarily if only to explain the sitch, though he declared it was all Kim's fault for insisting on following him._

_'Think of it as moving to a secure location so she can more easily strike without detection.' he said._

_'That does sound cooler.' said Jim._

_'But it's still not your usual way of doing things, sis.' said Tim._

_'I think we crossed that line already.' said Kim, looking at the empty chair where Ron normally sat during mission discussions._

_'And remind me again why you're leaving, and we're staying here if you think it's dangerous?' said Mr. Dr. Possible. Kim didn't answer, but Grimm piped in at once._

_'Because Monkey Fist couldn't care less about you guys.' he said. 'He wants Kim - out of the way. The only way he might think you were useful would be as hostages to lure Kim out.'_

_'And why didn't you tell us they might decide to target our houses with their 'turn to stone' ray?' said Mr. Stoppable quietly._

_'This is my way of telling you.' said Grimm. 'Besides, I don't think they will. Turning you to stone would be fast and painless. They'd want something a little more... slow to make sure Kim came running to the rescue.'_

_'Oh - well, that makes me feel much better.' said Mrs. Dr. Possible._

_'I think he's right.' said Kim grudgingly. 'It was the same at the Yono shrine. Monkey Fist wanted to make sure I could see it coming. If I'm not there to see it this time, he wouldn't think it was fun.'_

_'So what are we supposed to do while you run off into the blue with our daughter?' said Mr. Dr. Possible with a glare._

_Grimm smirked faintly. 'Just go about your normal, happy lives.' he said. 'And it would be best if you acted like she wasn't even gone. They might send spies to look in on you, and if they see you all nervous and angstey, they'll know something's up.'_

_'How long...' Mr. Dr. Possible started, '...and I'm not saying I agree to any of this, but if you do go away, how long would you be gone?'_

_Kim glanced at Grimm, who shrugged and looked away. Kim sighed. 'Until I find Ron.' she said at last._

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_Kim felt rushed over the next couple of hours, preparing to leave on her journey. She was surprised when she called Club Banana to try and arrange time off. She had been dreading it, because she was sure the owners of the branch would fire her. She had run a gamut of absences before because of her missions, and thought this might be the final straw, just as it had been at her brief stint in Bueno Nacho._

_But to her astonishment, they said that a work-exchange program had already been arranged, and that she was required to accompany Monique on a temporary transfer to another branch. When Kim asked where the transfer was located, they told her that a guide had already been appointed. When she hung up, she saw Grimm across the room, lowering his own communicator and nodding. And Kim was left wondering why he seemed so helpful and smug when she would be following him to his villain's hideout._

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_Back at Ron's house, Jade looked around, making sure everyone was otherwise occupied. Mr. and Mrs. Stoppable were supervising the packing of Rufus' long-term travel kit and making sure it followed all the items on Ron's list. Grimm was unceremoniously taking his bags out to the Ksikkihkíni. In the midst of it, Jade quietly slipped up to Hana's room. She was in her crib, playing with a stuffed monkey, but when Jade came in she looked up and smiled. 'Sister!' she squeaked._

_Jade smiled and picked her up, giving her a small hug. 'I'm not your sister, kiddo.' she said. 'But... before I left, I just wanted to say goodbye.'_

_Hana hugged her back, but didn't seem to understand a word of what Jade was saying. She batted at one of her earrings, laughing. 'Sister!' she said again._

_Grimm had noticed Jade was gone within five seconds. His suspicious nature kicked in and he slipped away as well, finding her within fifteen seconds. But he looked in surprise as he saw Jade hugging Hana and smiling. He stepped aside, peering from around the corner of the doorway as she spoke again._

_'I have to go away now, baby H.' she said. 'I don't know if we'll ever meet again.' Her voice sank to a low whisper that Grimm barely heard. 'But I wish....' but her voice broke and she stopped speaking. Finally she put Hana back in the crib and gave her a little kiss on her forehead. 'So long, rugrat.' she said._

_Grimm darted into another room as Jade came out into the hall. Jade stopped, leaning against the wall and he heard her sobbing quietly. 'Stupid kid...' he heard her saying. 'Why'd you have to be so cute?'_

_He saw her pass by the door, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. When she was out of sight down the stairs, he stepped into the hall, looking back towards Hana's room. Then shaking his head, he went back down to the living room._

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_Kim paused outside of Barkin's office. The thought of asking him a favor without him giving her 'the look' sent a shudder up her spine, but she knocked on the door and heard his imperious voice._

_'Enter!'_

_When Kim went into the office, she saw him sitting behind his desk and going through a number of papers. 'Ms. Possible.' he said flatly. 'To what do I owe this explosion-free visit?'_

_'I... needed to ask a favor.' she said, and paused. How she was going to phrase this in a way that wouldn't cause Barkin to give both her and Ron the entire semester's worth of homework in advance was something that would take great care._

_'Stop wasting my time Possible, I already know everything about it.' said Barkin, waving her off._

_'You... do?' Kim said. She had only told her parents about it a few minutes ago, how could Barkin have heard anything? But the answer popped into her head just as Barkin gave it._

_'Your friend Probable contacted me and let me know about the exchange program.' he said. 'Although it seems more like a visitation program since you and he were both here at the same time. But all the arrangements seem to be in order and classes for both you and Monique will continue at his school without interruption.' He squared his shoulders and narrowed his eyes in the stern way she had come to expect from him. 'I expect you to be on your best behavior, Ms. Possible.' he said, lowering his voice. 'Our school has standards, and it would be a great disappointment if you carried your penchant for destruction and disruption to another school.'_

_Kim sighed. 'You know me Mr. Barkin.' she said cheerily. 'Doesn't matter where or when there's trouble, if you just....'_

_'Oh I know the jingle, Possible.' said Barkin, his voice still low and dangerous. 'Which is why I gave the warning.'_

_After that came a task that was equally distasteful - arranging the cheer squad. Every member showed up during break for her announcement, and most of them looked dismayed. 'You're leaving us without a leader?' said Tara, looking forlorn._

_'He-LO.' said Bonnie. 'I'll be here!'_

_Tara glanced at Bonnie, then back to Kim. 'You're leaving us without a leader?' she said again, looking even more forlorn._

_Bonnie looked furious, but Kim pressed on. 'It won't be for long.' she said, though in her mind she added, 'I hope.' 'Until then...' and she paused with a heavy sigh, '...Bonnie will head up the practices.'_

_The other cheerleaders didn't quite groan, but they came close. After some discussion of the schedules, they dispersed with the other squad members heading back to their classes. Bonnie remained staring after them and smiling as if she had been anointed queen of the galaxy._

_'I have to say Kim,' she said. 'Probable's school has made you smarter already. Putting me in charge - that has to be the best decision you ever made.'_

_Kim grimaced, wondering how to forestall any abuse Bonnie might put to her authority before she tried it. But she looked at her watch and realized it was getting close to the time Grimm said he was going to leave and decided she didn't have time to be gentle._

_'By the way Bonnie, while I'm gone, I'll be giving more thought to the matter of bringing in new squad members.' she said, and saw Bonnie flinch slightly. 'Since you haven't come up with any ideas, I'll have to do it on my own. I'll check on the squad when I get back - that'll factor into any decisions I make.' said Kim._

_Bonnie's lip went into a tic that indicated she was fighting to suppress a diatribe of snarkyness. But at last, her horrible tooth gritting smile creaked into place. 'I'd be.... delighted to help.' she winced._

_'I knew I could count on you.' said Kim in her chirpiest voice, trying not to sound smug. And she left the gym, thinking that arranging this part of her absence had at least been fun._

_Unseen behind the bleachers, Grimm was smirking..._

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_Later at her house, Kim looked out through the window at the driveway. Wade and Monique were loading bags into the trunk of the Sloth. Grimm and Jade were standing next to the Ksikkihkíni, staring at them and looking impatient while Rueful scurried around between them. Kim sighed and looked down at her own bags, already packed and ready to go._

_Mrs. Dr. Possible laid a hand on her shoulder from behind. 'Kim... are you sure about this?'_

_Kim turned to face her family. Even Jim and Tim were looking somber. 'I know it seems crazy,' she said. 'But so far Grimm has given me some solid ideas about where to find Ron. The more he comes up with, the closer we get. And I want to be there for it.'_

_Mr. Dr. Possible looked gravely at his daughter. 'I think you know I don't approve of this idea. I mean, beyond the fact that you're going off unsupervised with a BOY...' He grimaced, then went on, 'I just don't like the idea of being out of contact with you.'_

_'I don't either.' said Kim. 'But I also don't like the idea of waiting here for Monkey Fist to target the house thinking that I'm inside it. At least this way, you should all be safe.' _

_Mr. Dr. Possible smiled faintly and patted her shoulder. 'Just don't turn your back on that Grimm character.' he said. 'He may have promised to help find Ron, but he's still one of the bad guys, and he's still a BOY....'_

_'Don't worry.' Kim laughed. 'I didn't say I was going to trust him. But for the moment, the enemy of my enemy is.... not as big an enemy as my other enemy.'_

_Mr. Dr. Possible scratched his head. 'I can do complex algorithms, but even that one's beyond me.' _

_Kim heard a horn honking which sounded like the four-tone alert that Grimm used for his communicator. Glancing back out the window, she was Grimm glaring and pointing at his watch. Kim sighed heavily. 'It's time to go.' she said, turning back to her parents._

_Mr. Dr. Possible looked uncomfortable as he spoke. 'Well, uh, be sure to eat your vegetables...'_

_'Yes, dad.' Kim said patiently._

_'Be sure to keep up with your homework...'_

_'Yes, dad.'_

_'Curfew rules still apply, even wherever it is you're going...'_

_'Yes, dad.'_

_'And... we love you.' he ended sheepishly._

_Kim paused, then pulled both her parents into a bear hug. Jim and Tim made gagging faces, but Kim ignored them. 'Thanks guys.' she said. 'You're the greatest. And... I'll be back soon, I promise.'_

_She knelt down in front of her brothers, who shuffled uneasily. 'Well - so long sis.' said Tim. 'Yeah.' said Jim. 'Try not to mess up the car again.'_

_Both twins struggled in protest as she hugged them both. 'Ew, gross!' said Jim. 'Sister cooties!' said Tim. _

_Kim maintained the hug, though. 'Stay out of my room, tweebs.' she said softly before letting go and standing up._

_'Hikka-bikka-boo.' they answered, their voices flat and droning._

_From Kim's hip pouch, Rufus smiled and wiped away a tear. 'Awwww!' he squeaked._

_Kim opened the front door, hoisted her bags, and with a final glace at her family, she stepped out onto the porch and closed the door behind her._

_**Part III: Meet The Probables**_

Kim saw the bike slowing down and turning into a driveway. Kim pulled the _Sloth_ by the curb in front of the house where he had turned in, seeing him getting off the bike and taking his bags out of the _Ksikkihkíni's_ trunk while Jade stood fidgeting next to him.

Kim got out of the car, looking at the house in surprise. She had been expecting a 'lair', like the stark bastions that Drakken and Dementor always used, but the house in front of her looked utterly _normal_. It wasn't as stylized as her own house, but it was slightly larger, with a wider yard. There seemed to be nothing remarkable about it and it blended right in with all the other surrounding houses and yards. The neighborhood seemed respectable and clean, with an above-average number of trees and greenery.

She walked up the driveway while Monique and Wade got out to look around. 'What's with the June Cleaver split-level?' she said. 'I thought you said your 'work' paid well.'

Grimm's eyes flicked to her, looking slightly confused. 'It _does_.' he said. 'But not everyone needs a limo and a mansion to prove it. I've got... _plans_ for the money we've earned.'

Kim glared. 'Plans that include....?'

'Nunna.' said Grimm, staring at both Kim and Monique. 'As in - _nunna your beeswax_.'

Jade cleared her throat. 'G-man, if you don't need me, I'll go home and do some prep work. If we're gonna do a sustained global search I'd better get started...'

'Yeah.' he said, nodding. 'And get in touch with Twitch if you can - I'll need to talk to him.' Jade nodded back to him and hoisted her bag, setting off on foot down the sidewalk. Wade looked up at Kim, who nodded almost imperceptibly. Wade nodded back and then followed after Jade.

Grimm didn't seem to notice. With Rueful on his shoulder, he hefted his bags, opened the door and strode into the house. 'Mom - Dad - I'm home!' he called out.

Kim and Monique followed. The house was well furnished, if slightly over-streamlined with an art deco flair. The entryway led into the living room, which had bookshelves and an ElDorado stone wall. The painted walls were lined with family photos and there was a trophy case at the far end where a number of gleaming cups shone gold from the underlit shelves.

'Grimm?' came a voice from around a corner. 'Where have you been? I wish you'd call more if you're going to be away for too long!' Kim stared as a slender, attractive woman with auburn hair stepped into the room, dressed in a purple blouse and skirt, and wearing a flowered apron. She stopped, staring at Monique and Kim in confusion. 'And... when you're bringing friends over.' she finished. 'And you are....?' she asked suspiciously.

Kim felt momentarily awkward. It was a _villain's_ house, and here she was meeting the villain's mother. She wondered briefly if they knew what Grimm was, if they approved of it; or if he was keeping his villain life secret from them, like Dr. Drakken had from his mom. She almost hoped that he was, so she could spill the beans on him.

Grimm sighed. Then he gestured to Kim and Monique. 'Mom, this is Kim Possible, and her friend Monique. They'll be helping me out with my mercenary work for a while.'

'_So they know_.' Kim thought. It figured. They were probably a whole family of mercenaries. Mrs. Probable was still looking at them suspiciously, and particularly at Kim.

'And... where's Rhonda?' she said, and Kim recognized the tone of voice at once. It was almost identical to the one her own mother used whenever she was surreptitiously trying to hustle her and Ron closer, and questioning anything that kept them apart. As plain and plain, she knew that Mrs. Probable was suspicious that Grimm was checking out other girls, and disapproved of it.

Grimm frowned. 'Rhonda's gone MIA.' he said. 'It would take too long to explain - but one of _her_ friends went missing along with Rhonda. We're putting our heads together to try and find them.'

'Then let them form their strategy, honey.' came another voice from the other side of the room. A man with was standing there, with slightly greying hair that was styled into a rigid crew cut. He was wearing a boring red necktie and a dark grey suit. He had a plastic badge pinned to his breast pocket which Kim recognized at once as a DOD badge.

'Though your mother's right, boy.' he said. 'You should have let us know you were bringing strangers. You know the protocol about this town.'

'I'm sorry dad.' Grimm said. 'But I felt it had to be done.' He turned to Kim. 'These are my parents.'

'Yeah, I guessed.' said Kim. Then feeling she should introduce herself, she started. 'My name's Kim...'

'Kim Possible - teenage crime fighter.' said Mr. Probable, nodding. He looked at Grimm. 'So we'll be going through Global Justice on this one?'

'Eventually.' Grimm muttered. 'Once she's been here a while, we may not have to.'

Mr. Probable nodded quietly. 'All right then - but let us know immediately if they don't follow through.'

Kim kept her eyes fixed on Mr. Probable's badge. 'You're with the _military_.' she said. 'Your family collaborates with Global Justice?'

'I believe you've met our liaison officer, Dr. Director.' said Mr. Probable, nodding.

'You're with the DoD, and you _know_ Grimm has been engaging in _illegal_ activities?' Kim said, her voice rising.

'Of course we _know_.' Mr. Probable said, frowning. 'You think a nation as free and open as this maintains it's security by pretending like everyone else is playing by the rules? Rules only stop _honest_ people missy - and treaties only stop _honest_ nations. Against tyrants, mad scientists, and super-villains, a treaty is nothing but a fancy piece of paper. To protect an honest, decent people from the scum of the earth, you have to take out the scum where it _lives_. And sometimes that means you need people who can get around the rules. You can call them 'mercenaries' if you want - but people like them are needed so the _real_ bad guys can't tear up the rules completely.'

'You can't preserve the law by _breaking_ it.' said Kim angrily.

'It's done every day.' said Mr. Probable. 'I think _you_ of all people would understand that, missy. I know all about you - zipping in and out of other countries, breaking and entering at will, destroying private property - all in the name of justice. And all without any regard for international law, or local law when you work stateside.'

'That's _different_.' said Kim.

'Why?' said Mr. Probable. 'Because _you_ do it? And you're fine with it as long as it's you? Get over yourself Possible, you're not that special. We have covert forces all over the globe who do the same thing you do - they just don't hog the cameras after the job's done.'

Kim glared. 'People like your own _son_?'

Mr. Probable chuckled. 'I didn't push my boy to do what he does.' he said. 'But he does it better than anyone else. Sure he takes money from these 'super-villains'. But I'd rather my son had it than _them_. And it's because of Grimm that we've been able to access these villains' files and secrets in ways we'd never have been able to before. All their weapons and genetics technology. The jobs he pulls for them keep us perfectly appraised of all their plans before they even launch them. And thanks to my boy here, we've opened a very promising department of mysticism.' He seemed to catch himself at that moment, and said, 'Or _did_ we? I'm really not at liberty to say.'

'And you don't mind that he's _helping_ these crooks with their schemes?' Kim said, incredulously.

Mr. Probable smirked, and Kim could see at once where Grimm had inherited his. 'How do you know he's not secretly working to bring them down from the inside?' he said. 'Maybe he is, and maybe he isn't. You didn't hear it from me.'

'And what if one of them _succeeds_ in taking over the world?' Kim said. 'Will it seem like a good idea then?'

Mr. Probable's voice became brisk. 'How many of them have _actually_ taken over the world?' Kim glowered, but didn't answer. 'Coincidence?' Mr. Probable said, his smile returning. 'You tell _me_.'

At this, Mrs. Probable cleared her throat. 'Honey, if they're going to be staying in town for a while, I don't want you making things harder by doing your 'lecture the bleeding heart' routine.' she said firmly.

Mr. Probable grumbled, but stepped back. Mrs. Probable turned back to Grimm. 'Now Grimm, you know I don't approve of any _girls_ staying here...' she started.

'No need.' said Grimm. 'I'm making other arrangements - though they may be here every so often for planning sessions.'

'All right then.' said Mrs. Probable, still looking doubtfully at Kim and Monique. 'Just call ahead if they're staying for dinner so I can cook extra. And remember I can't chaperone all the time. I'm due back at the embassy soon...'

Kim blinked. _Embassy_? But Grimm was nodding and heading towards a hallway where a number of doors lined each wall. Monique was tailing him and Kim made to follow, but before she could, Mr. Probable stepped in front of her.

'Just remember missy, I'm keeping an eye on you.' he said quietly, his handsome face contracting into a stare as equally protective and threatening as she had seen on her own father. 'My boy's too good for any old riff-raff. He's got a good thing going with that Fatigable girl, and if you try anything to get between them, I can make sure the IRS takes a close look at your family - _colonoscopy_ close.'

'Don't worry.' said Kim, her eyes just as steely. 'I wouldn't make any moves on him - because I've got the same policy about _riff-raff _that _you_ do.' And before Mr. Probable could say anything more, she side-stepped him and hastily followed Monique down the hallway.

'Embassy?' said Kim sharply, once she caught up.

'Mom's one of a number of ambassadors to a foreign country. I'm not saying which of course.' said Grimm. 'But as a diplomat, she's got...'

'Diplomatic immunity.' Kim growled. And suddenly she understood more about why finding the Probables had been so hard, and harder still to pin anything on them. Diplomats received levels of protection that most people could scarcely imagine. Their homes and identities were guarded zealously so that terrorists and unfriendly nations wouldn't be able to target them.

'Her and every member of her family.' said Grimm. 'But it's kind of like the battle-suit - I don't like relying on it when I do just fine without it.'

And Kim suddenly understood why all the houses in the neighborhood had similar architecture and why the neighborhood seemed so quiet. 'Your family's not the _only_ one in the neighborhood with military brass and diplomats - right?' she said.

'Not bad.' said Grimm, smirking. 'But it's not only this neighborhood - the entire _city_ is a safe haven for a number of diplomats, heads of state, and covert military groups. So you might want to think twice before pushing Wade too hard to try and get a fix on our location. The black ops have a whole network set up to mis-direct any signals, but they get kind of ticked off if someone tries too hard.'

'So if you had all these layers of protection, how come you never let me find you before?'

Grimm smirked as he opened one of the doors, which led down a flight of stairs and into darkness. 'Just wanted to let you wonder.' he said, 'Besides, I know how much you love a challenge.'

Kim had a sense of curious foreboding as she followed Grimm down the stairs and into a dimly lit basement. Ever since her first encounter with Team Probable, she had wondered about where they hatched their schemes, where they plotted and planned their moves, where they launched the campaigns that had made her life so difficult. And as many lairs as she had raided in her work, this one held more curiosity for her than any other since she hadn't been able to find it on her own.

But just as she had been on seeing the house, Kim felt a bit let down. The basement seemed totally ordinary, with some food storage at one end, boxes and other items stacked at another, a furnace, a tankless water heater, a washer and dryer; all the things one would expect to find in a basement. She kept her eyes on Grimm, expecting him to pull a lever or push a button that would cause all of these ordinary items to rotate, or sink into the floor and reveal computer banks, lab equipment and other mercenary gear.

Instead, Grimm headed to a section of the basement that had been walled off. Taking out a key, he stopped in front of a wood-stained door, but saw it was already slightly open with light streaming out. Wincing, he pushed open the door and stormed in.

As Kim followed behind him, she heard two squealing voices that sounded out in surprise, and the sound of something metallic being dropped. Without pausing, Grimm went to a sturdy looking desk and sat down at a computer. As he sat down, he jerked his thumb towards the door and barked, 'Twisters - _out_!'

'Twisters?' said Monique, coming into the room last.

Grimm snorted. 'Twins. Sisters. Twisters. Although they do enough damage they may as well be tornadoes.'

It was then that Kim saw two young girls, about Jim and Tim's age. They looked like mirror reflections of each other, except one was wearing a pink shirt, the other off-pink. They both had eyes like Grimm's, and Kim could see the shadow of his smirk on both sets of lips.

'You should give us more warning,' said the first girl,

'Before you go off somewhere.' said the second.

'_And_ before you come back.' said the first.

'Why?' said Grimm, looking impatiently at the monitor while the computer booted up. 'So you can have a timetable for tearing up the place? And anything you took, broke or tweaked, _fix_ it.'

But the twins were looking up at Kim and Monique. One looked slyly at Grimm, while the other stared at Kim. 'Bro, unless you're starting up a dating service, we're telling _Rhonda_ that you're bringing some new chicks into your looooooove nest!'

'Rhonda's missing.' said Grimm flatly. 'And I'll _thank_ you to mind your own business.'

They paused. 'Missing?' said the first.

'Missing _where_?' said the second.

Grimm threw a foam brick at them. 'Somewhere she can't be found - hence the word _missing_. _D'oy._'

'So who...'

'...are these gals?'

Grimm didn't look away from the computer screen as his OS booted up and his desktop came into view. 'They're here _temporarily _to help with the search.' he said. 'Monique - Kim, these are my sisters, Lynn and Miriam.'

'Call me _Mim_!' said Miriam with a nasty look. 'Jeez, no one uses _Miriam_ as a serious name anymore...'

Lynn ignored her, because she was still gaping at Kim. 'Kim...' she said, and her eyes flew wide. 'You're _Kim Possible_!!'

'Kim Possible?' shouted Mim, her eyes joining Lynn's in looking at her. '_The_ Kim Possible?'

'Oh boy, here we go...' said Grimm, covering his eyes with a hand.

'You _know_ me?' said Kim. She could understand Mr. Probable knowing about her, given his military connections, but she couldn't think of any reason why Grimm's sisters would know about her.

'_Know_ you?' said Mim.

'We've practically got a shrine built in our room!' said Lynn.

'True.' said Grimm in a low mutter.

'You're _fans_?' Kim said, surprised. 'Why?'

They looked mischievously over at Grimm. 'Because you annoy him.' said Lynn.

'And that's good enough for _us_.' said Mim.

'Haven't you losers got a car to build or something?' Grimm said more loudly. '_Out_!'

The twins glared. 'Fine, but if she stays for dinner, she's _ours_.' said Mim. They left and closed the door, sticking their tongues out at Grimm before it shut.

Kim couldn't help feeling amused. 'So even your sisters like me better than you.' she said.

'Burn!' said Monique, and high-fived Kim while Rufus sniggered. Rueful's head poked around from behind the monitor and he blew a raspberry at Kim.

Grimm rolled his eyes, bringing up what looked like an e-mail browser. 'You can join your local fan club later.' he said. 'Once I catch up on my email, I'll show you where you'll be staying.' Kim edged around to try and get a clearer view of the computer monitor, but Grimm leaned to block her, and pulled a privacy screen over the monitor face. 'Boundaries!' he said. 'I didn't barge into _your_ room or try to peek at your email.'

Monique had already pulled out one of the chairs around the table in the middle of the room and sat down, but Kim stayed standing, taking a closer look around. She saw that one of the walls was covered with a layer of corkboard. And pinned to the cork was a veritable mural of photographs. She saw pictures of Team Go, Team Impossible, members of Global Justice, and even a few pictures of herself. All of the pictures showed the subjects with various expressions of anger or embarrassment.

Kim winced, and recognized the pictures of herself as the ones Rhonda had taken during the Zorpox incident. She tried to fight down the anger the memories triggered, and examined the rest of the room. Besides a rather spartan bed, the room didn't have much furniture. There was the table, jumbled with various parts and equipment. There was the computer desk and some shelves lining the wall with a ramshackle assortment of books. But beyond that there were only a few sports posters here and there, an accordion door closet, and some martial arts equipment propped up against the wall. The only light was from a phosphorescent fixture set in the ceiling, and a tiny basement window that looked up into the yard. Despite the large size of the room, the overall effect was dim, boxy and confining.

'Nice place you got here.' said Kim. 'Does Batman know you're using his cave?'

'Sorry we don't have a loft for you to perch in like your penthouse at Middleton.' said Grimm sarcastically. 'So the show bird doesn't like the decor?'

Kim rolled her own eyes in turn. 'I was just expecting something a little more... _evil_.' she said.

Grimm sniffed impatiently. 'And what exactly classifies?' he said. 'Skin mags and drug paraphernalia? I'm a _villain_ - not a pervert or a junkie.'

_**Part IV: With Friends Like These**_

There was a thumping noise of someone clattering down the stairs. Kim instinctively braced herself, pulling Monique aside and going into a fighting stance. A second later the door flew open and a boy about Grimm's age strode in. He was wearing a light bomber-style jacket and blue jeans and his hispanic-complexioned face had a friendly smile.

'Senor Grimm - _donde has estado_?' he said, 'I heard you were back and came over to welcome you home!' Without looking up, Grimm bumped fists with him.

'Hey, Enrique.' he said.

'You have been greatly missed my friend - and you would not believe what that _perdedor_ Donnie has been up to while you were gone...'

'Whatever it is, I believe it.' said Grimm, smiling faintly.

'And where is the beautiful Rhonda?' he said. 'Dare I hope that she has finally decided to accept my offer to prove I can be a better boyfriend...?'

'Fat chance.' said Grimm, and his expression became darker. 'And how many times have I told you to stop asking?'

_'Tranqile_, Senor Grimm...' Enrique said, holding up his hands. 'We both know her heart burns only for you, but still - a man can dream....' He started to casually look around the room, and he saw Kim. His eyes gleamed and his face took on a dazed expression. 'Though a man's dreams can change...' he said. _'Amigo_, you did not tell me you were hosting a goddess!'

With a smoothness that Kim recognized as having been achieved through practiced ease, Enrique took and kissed her hand. Kim might have been flattered, for Enrique was kind of cute, but the thought of Ron replaced any sensation of charm with discomfort.

'My red-haired angel,' he said in a low voice, and Kim saw Grimm rolling his eyes from his desk. 'You must be new in town because I would certainly remember having seen a woman of your surpassing beauty. My name is Enrique - and yours....?'

'Spoken.' said Kim quickly. 'As in - _spoken for_.'

'Ah - my _heart_!' he said, putting a hand over his chest in simulated pain. 'I suppose it was too much to hope that one such as you would be available...' But his voice faded, and the hypnotized look he had shown to Kim immediately shifted as his eyes fixed on Monique, and he stepped forward muttering under his breath. '_Senor Grimm - que esta la chica negricita bonita....?'_ but before Grimm could say anything he had already smoothly taken Monique's hand and given it a swift, but tender kiss.

'Hola my dear,' he said. 'My name is Enrique, but you can call me the greatest boyfriend on the face of the earth.'

'Hello, _Enrique_.' Monique said coldly, pulling her hand back.

'I sense you are new in town as well.' said Enrique eagerly. 'RIddleton has many places of beauty, charm and _romance_. I humbly offer my service as your guide.'

'I don't think so, _Enrique_.' said Monique, putting her hands on her hips. 'So far since coming in this room, you've tried to sweet-talk _three_ different girls - and one of them isn't even _here_. I got two words for that, homeboy - _tact less_.'

Enrique didn't appear ruffled at all. On the contrary, he still had a look of fawning adoration on his face as he kept smiling at Monique. 'When a man sets out to catch a star, he must cast a wide net.' he said. 'And with such fire as you have, a star you must be....'

Monique winced, leaning until Grimm was back in view. 'Have you got a _leash_ for this guy?' she said.

'You will need no leash for me to follow you to the ends of the earth....' Enrique muttered.

'Enrique - _back off_.' said Grimm casually. 'We've talked about this before - _playing cool_? Kim Possible - Monique; this is my best friend Enrique. Assistant curator at the Riddleton Museum of Arts, arguably the best sculptor in town, and widely acknowledged as the most active dater at Riddleton High.'

'He exaggerates,' said Enrique waving his hand. 'I assure you both, I am pure as the wind-driven snow...'

Monique groaned, shaking her head. 'Can we focus?' said Kim. 'We're supposed to be working - not that meeting your _peeps_ isn't a blast and a half, but there are people I can meet at _home_ if I need to.'

Enrique pulled his eyes away from Monique reluctantly. _'Es verdad_, Grimm - you are working?'

Grimm nodded. 'And if you're willing, I might need some extra hands before it's all over.' he said. 'Rhonda's missing. I need to find her.'

Enrique looked dumbfounded. _'Un amor que faltan_!' he said. 'Not the lovely Rhonda? I swear by the beating of my heart, I will never rest until she is back safely in your arms...' Though his eye strayed back to Monique as he spoke.

'Thanks Enrique.' said Grimm, still typing at his keyboard and smiling faintly. 'If anyone on earth can find a missing girl, it's _you_.'

Grimm's computer made a sudden beeping noise identical to his communicator and a window popped open showing Jade's face. Kim could see Wade standing in the background looking around curiously, though it looked like they were still outside. 'What's the sitch?' said Grimm, still checking his inbox.

'I'm ringing Twitch.' came Jade's voice. 'Patching you through...'

The window blurred with static, and a flat, grey room showed, though there was no one to be seen. Grimm waited a moment, then spoke with a raised voice. 'Twitch.' he said loudly. But there was no answer. 'Twitch!' he said again, more loudly, and again nothing. Sighing, he hit another key and the chat window made a loud buzzing sound. '_Wake up Twitch.'_ Grimm nearly shouted. 'It's barely noon, I know you're there!'

And at last someone leaned his face into view of the webcam. Despite looking half asleep, he moved in a series of spastic jerks. Kim's first thought was that he was some kind of street tough, as he had a disheveled appearance, a bandana tied around his arm and a haggard complexion. '_Dang_, Grimm.' he said, and there was a trace of sleep still in his voice. 'You disappear for over a week, not even a word, now you turn up again and expect me to be _on_ just like that? What is _wrong_ wit' you?'

'I need eyes and ears, Twitch.' said Grimm. 'Unless you and the Irregulars have got other stuff to do.'

'Yeah, actually.' said Twitch, looking annoyed. 'We're goin' down to the orphanage to read to the kids...'

'Standard fees apply.' said Grimm wearily.

Twitch's face suddenly brightened, his eyes sparkled and he looked like he had just noticed him. 'Grimm!' he said eagerly. 'We missed you dawg, where you _been_ at?'

'Here and there.' said Grimm.

'So where's blondie?' Twitch went on, his eyes darting back and forth, his entire head jerking slightly as he looked. He seemed to notice Kim and Monique in the background for the first time. 'Who are those honeys? Grimm you ain't steppin' out on Goldilocks are you? Dude, that is _whack_!'

'I'm not 'steppin' out' - Rhonda's gone missing.'

This seemed to silence Twitch for a moment. 'Yo, sorry dude.' he said, his voice softer. 'Who was it? That Go team?'

Grimm shook his head. 'That's why I need you and the Irregulars.' he said. He brought up two photographs, one of Monkey Fist, one of Maze. 'These are the guys behind it. I need you to find them. Turn out the local gang, and have them fan out to any contacts overseas they can muster. If we find these guys, we find _her_.'

'Dude looks like a _monkey_.' said Twitch, shaking his head. 'And who's that other guy?'

'His name's Maze. No, not 'maze', it's 'mah-_zay_'. If you find them, don't try to take them out, just report it to _me_ right away. Trust me, they're bad news. Are you downloading the pics?'

'Yeah, _yeah_.' said Twitch. 'Just can't believe you want us lookin' for Curious George and Squinto...'

'It's _important_, Twitch.' said Grimm. 'They've been hitting small towns in England - Basalton and Graniton. They might try others, so tell everyone to keep their eyes peeled. If you can find them, I'll double the fee.'

Twitch whistled, then nodded. 'Bro', I am _on _it.' he said. 'But wherever you been, point me there.' he said, leaning his head. 'Looks like you picked up some pretty nice souvenirs...'

Monique rolled her eyes. 'Oh boy, here we go...' she said, but Grimm smirked.

'Sorry, I didn't introduce you yet.' he said. 'This is Monique, the other girl is Kim Possible.'

Twitch nearly fell out of his chair. 'What?' he said, and almost looked like he was convulsing. '_Kim Possible?_ The _crime fighter_? Dude, are you _crazy_?'

'It's like you to be scared of your shadow Twitch, but not scared of _girls_....'

'Dude, I am _not_ comin' round to visit if _she's_ there!' he said, pointing a shaky finger at Kim.

Grimm sniffed. 'Like we've ever met in real life anyway?' he said. 'Just don't give her any reason to arrest you, you'll be fine. And _call me_ if you find them.' Twitch winced and reached up his hand, filling the camera, then the window burst into static.

Monique shook her head. '_Those_ are your peeps?' she said.

Grimm smirked. 'They're the Riddleton Irregulars - Twitch is the local ringleader. I wouldn't recognize any of the others by sight, but they're _everywhere_. They can get information even I can't sometimes, because they're so ordinary looking that no one notices them. They're so regular it's _irregular_.'

'Yeah, Irregulars - I get it.' said Kim. 'But I thought we were assuming that Monkey Fist is holed up somewhere in England, not stateside.'

'They've got an England branch headquartered somewhere in Baker Street.' Grimm said. 'If Monkey Fist or Maze show up anywhere, the Irregulars will spot them. But we can't assume they won't ever venture across the pond.'

'So what happens next?' said Kim.

Grimm's eyes narrowed. 'For someone who plays everything by the ear, you're sure impatient when other people do it.' he said. 'Right now, we wait a bit and see if the Irregulars turn up with anything. In the meantime... you need a place to stay.'

'Curfew rules.' said Kim. 'I'm _not_ staying here.'

'Wouldn't want you to.' said Grimm, smiling. 'But I already said, I've got another place ready to go...'

'Senorita Monique, there is a spare room at _my_ home which is very comfortable...' Enrique said brightly. Monique backed away from him, but Grimm interrupted.

'Rope it in, Enrique.' he said. 'The place I've picked out has _two_ spare rooms.'

_**Part V: Meet The Omo-sa Family**_

Wade looked around with interest while Jade linked Grimm up with Twitch. After hiking a couple of blocks, Jade had walked up to what looked like a gated compound. The wall was draped with ivy and very intricate in appearance, but it was still very tall and very solid-looking. Jade walked up to an ornamental iron gate and entered a series of numbers on a keypad. After a few seconds the gate buzzed loudly and pulled open with a metallic grating. Wade saw a polished brass plaquard mounted on the wall that read '_Omo-sa'_.

Jade passed through the gate and onto a long cobbled driveway. As Wade followed her, he thought they had stumbled into some kind of re-creation of a Japanese palace. A wide, sweeping yard with bamboo foliage rose up towards a large house on a hill. As they walked up the driveway, Wade saw several elaborate features to the yard including a rock garden, a shrine, and a large Koi pond with working fountains.

The house itself was done in the style of a Japanese building, retooled for a temperate climate. Jade opened one of the heavy double front doors and Wade followed her in. The interior seemed very opulent. The walls, the floor and the ceiling were done in polished marble, with decorative carvings and columns here and there. Display tables with intricate sculptures extended down a long hallway like a museum corridor. Jade took off her shoes and got into a pair of slippers from a caddy next to the door, and motioned Wade to do the same.

'The rents don't like dirt.' she said, looking with a wince down the spotless hall.

A young woman who looked similar to Yori stepped out from one of the side doors, smiling. She was dressed like a house servant, but had a friendly face. 'Jade-sama!' she said brightly. 'You have come back - and you bring a friend with you, that is most unusual....'

'Hi Sakura.' said Jade. 'How have things been?'

Sakura's smile didn't falter, but her face took on a knowing expression. 'Without you around, very quiet.'

Jade chuckled. 'I bet.' she said. 'Well, it'll get a lot louder pretty soon once dear old dad gets wind that I've brought company. Sakura, this is Wade Load. He's a computer geek, know-it-all, inventor, everything that _I_ am - except dad will probably _like_ it because he's a guy.' She looked around nervously. 'Speaking of which - where is he?'

Sakura still smiled as she looked back down the hall. 'Funny you should ask....' she said.

Jade winced and froze as a gravelly voice seemed to roar down the hallway. '_Jaaaaaaaaaade_!'

Wade saw a man and a woman approaching down the polished marble hall, their footsteps echoing slightly. The man was short, balding and severe-looking, with black, square framed glasses. He wore a black suit and tie with shoes that were nearly as shiny as the floor.

The woman was stern looking, but also seemed slightly wary of the man next to her. She wore an intricately woven kimono and gold earrings. Jade sighed and looked up at the ceiling as they both stopped in front of her and glared. 'What is it, dad?' she said in a drawling voice.

'You dishonor this family!' said Mr. Omo-sa, with a blunted Japanese accent. 'You disappear for over two days - no message, no phone! Normally, I would be delighted that you finally got out of your room and into the real world - but _this_! You neglect your studies - neglect your parents - neglect our _honor_..!'

'Dad - _chill_!' said Jade wearily. 'Even if I'd been gone a week, I'm still far enough ahead in my studies that it wouldn't matter! And I didn't 'neglect' you, I'm right here, safe and sound. I was gone because of my work, which you say is all right because of the money it brings!'

'But going off alone and un-announced?' said Mr. Omo-sa. 'And you come back with this...' and here he turned his gaze slowly to Wade. '..._gaikokujin_.' he said with a look of distaste.

Jade put a hand over her eyes. 'Dad - we've been in this country my whole life - _you're_ the _gaikokujin_ here, remember?'

Mr. Omo-sa ignored her remark, still looking harshly at Wade. 'Why have you brought this stranger into my house?' he said, his voice rising.

'For _work_, dad....' Jade sighed.

'But a stranger still!' Mr. Omo-sa thundered. 'This American custom of bringing over friends and guests without a word of warning - in our country, it is _not_ done that way!' said Mr. Omo-sa defiantly.

Jade looked like she was about to respond. But Wade leaned and muttered to her.

'Mr. Nakasumi wasn't nearly this uptight...' he said softly.

'Nakasumi?' said Mr. Omo-sa, his eyes now burning into Wade. 'Mr. Nakasumi - of the Nakasumi corporation?'

'Yeah.' said Wade. 'We've saved him and his company a few times.'

Mr. and Mrs. Omo-sa muttered back and forth to each other in hurried and muted Japanese. He knew some Japanese, but they were speaking too low for him to follow. After a moment they both nodded, and then Mr. Omo-sa's entire aspect seemed to change. His stern expression evaporated and became friendly and inviting. He stepped forward like a father welcoming home a long-lost son and shook Wade's hand.

'Load-san!' he said warmly. 'Welcome to our humble home! You must forgive our surprise, but my daughter so rarely invites anyone over. Please tell us... how is Mr. Nakasumi? There were rumors after the Diablo incident that he was retiring...'

Wade was a bit alarmed by the sudden change in attitude, but returned the handshake weakly. 'He's... fine.' he said. 'Kyoko-sama said the sitch with the Diablo robots didn't affect their global sales, and he's still going strong. I didn't hear them say anything about retirement.'

Mr. Omo-sa nodded again at his wife, as if they had been testing him, and they became even warmer. 'So you and Possible-chan have come to help my daughter with some project? I hope you will accept our humble hospitality. We have a guest house near the garden in back - it would be a great honor if you were to stay there.'

'That's... very kind of you Mr. Omo-sa.' said Wade. 'But I don't wish to impose...'

'Nonsense!' Mr. Omo-sa thundered, clapping a hand on his shoulder. 'I _insist_ that you stay.'

Jade sighed. 'Just say _yes_.' she said under her breath. 'He won't shut up until you do.'

'Ah... thank you sir, I'd be honored.' Wade said uncomfortably.

Mr. Omo-sa nodded. 'Jade will show you to the guest house. You will also join us for dinner!' Both sentences sounded like commands issued from an emperor.

'Yes... sir.' said Wade, for it looked as if refusal might trigger some kind of explosion.

'Very good!' Mr. Omo-sa bellowed. And Wade, remembering his protocol from their several encounters with Mr. Nakasumi, bowed his head and backed away from them slowly.

Jade shook her head. 'Come on, 'Wade-san'.' she said grumpily. 'Probably just as well you stayed close by anyway so our tele-conferences don't take as long. But _stay away_ from my room unless I beep you, savvy?'

'Fine, house rules.' said Wade. He followed her through the house and marveled at how _spotless_ it was. Polished marble was everywhere, along with several mirrors in ornate frames, but there wasn't a smudge or fingerprint to be seen. Jade led him out of a nearly invisible sliding glass door into the backyard where he saw a smooth path of flagged stones leading a short distance to a smaller structure nestled near the corner of the rear walls surrounding the compound.

The smaller building was very similar to the main house, and as Jade motioned him inside, he saw that it was modeled with the same polished marble floors. Though the interior walls seemed to be latticed bamboo with sliding barriers made of frosted paper. There were only a few rooms, adequately furnished, and Wade was relieved to see internet connection ports on one of the walls. Beyond that the guest house had an air of not having been used very often.

'Settle in, Wadey.' said Jade, stumping back towards the main door. 'Dad's probably already sending someone to get your bags. Dinner's at 7pm, and he's a stickler for punctuality if you want to keep sucking up to him...'

'Wait a second!' he said, suddenly aware that he'd only packed _regular_ clothes. If the Omo-sa's dining room was anything like the rest of the house, he'd feel like a hillbilly who wandered into a state dinner. 'I haven't got any formal clothes...'

'There's some extra clothes in the closet out here.' Jade shrugged. 'Hit the blue intercom button for one of the maids - they can let things out to your size.' She paused, looking at his gut. 'Good thing too.' she muttered, and slid the door closed.

_**Part VI: Meet The Fatigables**_

Grimm had a smug air of 'payback' about him as he led Kim down the block to another house. After meeting Grimm's parents and learning who they were, Kim seemed to understand a little more about the neighborhood. It was quiet, unusually quiet and ordered. It had the same feel as some of the housing complexes she had been through in her occasional visits to military bases.

'So the _whole city_ is some kind of haven for military and diplomats?' Kim said.

'Roughly.' Grimm shrugged. 'There are enough of them around that Riddleton gets top-level security at all times.'

'So how do you keep the city secret? Don't local businesses need to have things delivered from outside?' said Kim.

'Riddleton is pretty well self-contained.' Grimm answered. 'The local agriculturals grow the food, local manufacturers make this and that. Anything the city decides it needs from out of town is delivered through military channels. I can't say _which_ of course...'

'Of course.' Kim grumbled.

'Apple doesn't fall far from the tree.' Monique said under her breath.

Grimm began walking up the driveway of another house. It was very similar to his own house except it had a more 'woodsy' appearance, with log trim here and there, and some log furniture on the front patio. Grimm knocked at the front door and after a few seconds, a blonde-haired woman answered. She looked similar to Rhonda except her hair was shorter and her face seemed thinner. A small boy of toddler age was in the crook of her elbow.

'Grimm!' she said warmly, though she had an anxious look on her face. 'Did you find her? Do you know where she is....?'

'Not yet, Mrs. Fatigable.' said Grimm, shaking his head and actually looking _ashamed_. 'But I've brought in some help with the search and I hope it'll speed things up.' He paused, sounding wary, then said, 'This is Kim Possible and her friend Monique. They're specialists from Middleton. They'll be in town pitching in while I keep looking. I was... wondering if they could stay here for a while?'

'Oh....' said Mrs. Fatigable, looking surprised.

'I wouldn't ask, but they need to be someplace nearby, and you know what a stickler my mom is about girls staying over at our place.' said Grimm with a note of pleading. 'I'll arrange for meals to be delivered, and if you name a fair price for room and board, I'll totally cover it.'

'Well, if it'll help to find my little girl.' said Mrs. Fatigable hesitantly. 'But I could use some help with Indy.' She looked at Kim and Monique. 'Do either of you know anything about baby-sitting?'

Kim felt a slow smile spreading her lips.

A soothing, sonorous voice came from the side hallway. 'Why, we'd be delighted to help out!' A man with a cheerful, round face came into the room. He was wearing a charcoal grey suit with a red tie, though he looked much more mellow than Mr. Probable. He had the air of a man with a very dull, tedious job which he worked because he enjoyed it.

'Thanks, Mr. F.' said Grimm. 'You're sure it's OK?'

'Oh, don't worry about it.' said Mr. Fatigable warmly. 'We've got plenty of room here, and it's been so quiet since Rhonda went missing. But having a big house is one of the perks associated with being the top accountant in.... my place of business.' he ended sheepishly as Mrs. Fatigable elbowed him in the ribs.

Mrs. Fatigable led them upstairs to a hallway that looked like it was normally well kept, but was now cluttered with baby toys. 'Sorry about the mess.' she said. 'Little Indy gets into _everything_. Rhonda was the only one who could keep him occupied. It's been tough for him with his big sister gone.'

Indy burbled his lips while they stopped in front of a plain door near the end of the hall. 'You can stay in Rhonda's room.' Mrs. Fatigable said to Kim. While Mrs. Fatigable showed Monique to the second spare room, Kim looked around the room into which she had been ushered. Rhonda's room was much smaller than her own, without any of the airy space she enjoyed in her loft. It was perfectly square, with a mirrored desk at one end, a bed at the other, a closet in one wall and a low set of shelves under the window.

Kim slumped down into the chair at the desk. _'How in the world did I wind up here?'_ she thought ruefully. She looked at the mirror and saw several ribbons clipped to the side. "1st Place Long-Distance Runner" and "Chess Team Captain" were printed on nearly all of them. And, she noted with much more embarrassment, there was a corkboard, pinned with a large number of photos of Rhonda and Grimm. Some of them were taken when they were much younger, playing games, flying kites, and some Halloween costume photos. But there were a large number that seemed to have been taken very recently, with Rhonda and Grimm tandem bike riding, laughing on a carnival ride, making faces at the camera, and a large photograph in the center of the two of them kissing, obviously candid, probably taken by Lynn or Mim. A big heart was lined around both of them with red marker.

She saw a photo album on the shelves. Feeling like an intruder, but also feeling too curious to stop herself, she started thumbing through it. She was shocked to see photos of Team Probable posing with Professor Dementor, others with Duff Killigan, Monkey Fist, and a number of other villains. She recognized some of them as having been taken at the HenchCo Villains Convention. They were clowning around, posing at various booths, singing at the Villain Karaoke bar, and making bunny ears with Shego behind Drakken's head.

Behind the section with the photographs was a booklet of what looked like thank you letters. She flipped through them and felt herself gritting her teeth as she read.

_Dear TP:_

_Thanks for the assist the other week - we'd never have been able to get Operation Gurkin off the ground without you. I know Shego thinks it's a waste of time, but when has SHE ever been right about anything? Seriously, she could learn a thing or two from you guys - at least you know how to get the job done without sounding French! (Too much whine - get it?) Anytime you need a ride, beep me!_

_Evilly yours,_

_Dr. D_

_To Mssr Probable and Ms. Fatigable:_

_Your team is a credit to all villainy. My plan to find and use the mystic keys of Yamanouchi would never have been launched if you hadn't told me the school contained the map leading to the first shrine. The world is an extremely suppressed place, and once I have taken control, your efforts will not be forgotten!_

_Simian-cerely yours,_

_Lord Montgomery Fiske_

_PS - Bobo says 'Oooh-ooh-ah!'_

_Yo, Probable dude!_

_That was totally kickin' the way you swiped those experimental engine parts for me - and right under Global J's noses! Dude, you are hardcore! Seriously! I mean.... seriously!!_

_Your bud,_

_Ed_

_PS - SERIOUSLY!_

Kim thumbed through them again and again. Her heart pounded, and she felt like a treasure long sought after and nearly given up on had suddenly dropped right into her lap. Here was what she had been hoping for - hard evidence that Grimm and Rhonda were mercenaries. She felt her cheeks flush with anger as she remembered being skunked by Leigh Gality in her own home.

_'These accusations are nothing more than figments of your overactive teenage imagination.'_

She imagined the looks on Grimm and Leigh's faces in a courtroom as she produced the pictures and letters in this album, and a simmering feeling of satisfaction burned beneath her stomach. She went to the door, making sure that Mrs. Fatigable was still seeing to Monique. Then she started taking pictures of everything in the album using the camera embedded into her Kimmunicator.

After a few anxious minutes, she checked the screen to make sure the photos were high enough resolution. Then she quickly speed-dialed Wade.

Soon Wade's face popped up, and Kim blinked. He was wearing some kind of suit, and his arms were spread out. She couldn't tell how he was holding his communicator. 'What's the sitch, Kim?' he said, and she realized her confusion had let him get the drop on her.

'Wade,' she said, and she kept her voice to a conspiratorial mutter. 'Are you free to talk?'

'Just a second!' Wade answered, wincing. 'I'm being pinned.'

'_Pinned_?' said Kim. 'You're at a _tailor's_?'

'Sort of.' Wade said. 'The servants at Jade's place know how to do all kinds of stuff.... But they're nearly done - hold on!' There was some muttering, and the images on Kim's screen shuddered and tilted. Eventually Wade returned, wearing an intricately woven robe over his T-shirt. He was looking off to the side as if he were seeing someone out, then he focused on the screen again.

'OK - we're alone. I mean, I'm alone - what's up Kim?'

'I found the mother lode, Wade.' she said. 'I'm at Rhonda's place, and she's got a 'Precious Memories' book full of pictures and documents linking her and Grimm to all kinds of heists.'

Wade hurriedly hit some more buttons. 'Triple securing the transmission.' he said quickly. 'Kim are you sure about this?'

'I'm sure.' she said.

'This is big if it's true.' he answered.

'Big? It's _massive_.' said Kim. 'It means we can finally put them in cell block D where they belong! I'm sending along screencaps of everything in their little book - I need you to make hard copies so I can switch them out and take the originals as evidence.'

'OK...' said Wade, looking uncomfortable. 'But... do you want to do this right _now_? I mean, we're kind of... guests and stuff. Wouldn't calling in the cops make dinner with the parents kind of awkward?'

'_Delightfully_ awkward.' Kim growled. 'The deal was to help out until we find Ron and Rhonda. And he said himself that once it's over, all bets are off. Once Ron's back safe and sound, I want to make sure I've got the goods to put them away.'

Wade still looked doubtful, but he nodded. 'I'm not sure when I'll be able to access a printer without Jade noticing, but I'll do my best.'

'Please and thank you.' said Kim, and she closed the link.

She started as she heard a noise. A cat flap built into the door of Rhonda's room had rattled, and the furry brown form of Rueful slinked smoothly into the room. He climbed up on the desk, staring up at the photos, then bowed his head with a mournful sounding trill.

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Grimm was taking up his martial arts equipment when his communicator buzzed. 'What's the sitch Jade?' he said.

'Looks like operation _seppuku_ is nearly a go. She's taking the bait.' Jade said simply. 'What should I do?'

Grimm paused, tapping his finger. 'Nothing yet.' he said. 'But let me know if she actually bites. I'll be out in the training yard.'

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Kim was waiting in the hall when Monique came out of the spare bedroom. 'All settled?' she asked.

'Settled as I can be this far from home.' Monique answered. She looked closely at Kim. 'What's up, girlfriend?'

'Nothing.' said Kim, suddenly aware that she was smiling. She tried to turn the corners of her mouth down, but they wouldn't go all the way.

'Uh-_huh_ 'nothing.' Monique answered, sounding totally unconvinced. 'Girl you haven't looked this happy since that time Bonnie got sick in the cafeteria. Do _not_ make me wheedle it out of you!'

Kim lowered her voice. 'It's not a cert yet, but I think I've got some intel that might put Grimm in jail.'

'Get _out_!' said Monique. 'No foolin'?'

'No fooling. Let's head back to his place - but _don't_ drop any hints along the way.'

_**Part VII: The Training Yard**_

Kim and Monique trudged back to Grimm's house. Kim was worried they might not find it, but the houses were only separated by about half a block. Plus the _Sloth _was still parked by the curb, making an easy landmark. Mrs. Probable greeted them again at their knock, but still looked suspiciously at Kim.

'I wanted to see Grimm.' she said, trying not to sound too curt. 'We need to hash out a few more details now that I've got a place to crash.'

'He's in the training yard.' said Mrs. Probable, motioning backwards.

Kim and Monique looked at each other. 'The... _what_?' said Monique.

Mrs. Probable pointed around the side of the house. 'Past the garage and through the backyard to the wooded area behind the house.' she said. 'Follow the path, you can't miss it.'

Kim and Monique walked around the house and into the backyard. After passing through the back gate, they found themselves in a thickly grown field with bushes, trees and tall grass everywhere. The chimneys of other houses poked up here and there, but they were distant, as if the houses in Grimm's suburb marked the 'boundary' of Riddleton with their house near the edge of a forest.

The grass had a path beaten through it which was clearly visible, as if it had been well worn over several years. They followed it until the trees towered up on either side. The path threaded through some heavy trunks for a short way until the shade of the overhanging leaves became thinner again and they emerged into a wide clearing.

Kim and Monique gasped. They were standing outside a ring of bushes, but a bit further in was some kind of complex. It looked about a third the size of a football field, a vast labyrinth of chain link fences set on top of a flat expanse that looked like it was made of the same hard, spongy material as a racing track. Trees poked through here and there, but it looked as if they were left there on purpose as part of the overall theme of the complex.

And the theme seemed to be a huge obstacle course. There were sections with hanging rings, sections with ropes, sections devoted to climbing, some to crawling, some to running, and Kim recognized several martial arts practice dummies and practice targets. A network of gutters ran throughout to funnel rainwater, and the main fence which surrounded the training yard looked strong and high, linked to one long cinder block wall.

'What the heck is all this...?' Monique started, but Kim shusshed her, pointing to what looked like an entry gate with a security keypad. A dozen yards past the fence, Grimm was standing. He was dressed in a karate _gi_ with soft shoes and he was breathing hard as if he had just run a long distance. Another keypad was on a panel near to him, and he entered a code. Barely audible over the distance, they heard him talk into a speaker next to the keypad.

'Once more.' he said. 'This time at level 9.'

Grimm took a ready stance in the middle of a wide, empty space and Kim edged closer to the fence which ringed the training yard, careful to keep some cover in front of her. Monique started as a number of panels in the ground raised up. Housed in each one was a contraption that looked like a modified tennis ball launcher. A loudspeaker blared from off to the side, broadcasting what sounded like a pre-recorded taunt by either Lynn or Mim, she couldn't tell which.

_'You're goin' down, bro!'_

Kim saw Grimm tense up, and heard him say, 'Not bleeping likely.'

With a rhythmic series of hissing bursts, the cannons began launching tennis balls towards Grimm from randomized locations. His face took on an odd calm as he gracefully spun in place, knocking each tennis ball aside before any of them could strike him.

Kim saw a countdown timer in that section of yard, ticking down from sixty seconds towards zero. Next to it was another lit screen that simply read '5'. Grimm managed to catch one of the tennis balls in flight and sent it with a flick towards a wall-mounted target about ten yards away. It hit the target, and the second lit screen moved down to '4' with a loud buzz.

As the first timer continued to tick down, the volley of tennis balls became more rapid. Grimm was obliged to leap and avoid several of them instead of blocking when both his hands were occupied. None of them touched him, and he continued to catch more balls in the air, or scoop them up from the ground to launch at more targets which began to pop up and down from other hidden hatchways.

'Woah.' said Monique quietly.

'Monique - do not _praise_ the villain!' Kim said shortly.

With a louder buzz, the second screen hit zero as Grimm hit his fifth target. A gate slid open at the end of that arena, and he dashed through it, pursued by a hail of tennis balls. The next section looked similar to a gymnastics field, with pommel horses, balance beams and ropes with rings swinging from several high poles.

New cannons rose up in the area he entered. He leaped and tumbled over the pommel horses, gripping some and turning to avoid incoming shots. As he ran across a lengthy balance beam, he built up enough speed for a larger leap and clutched the ring from one of the hanging ropes. Using the rope as an anchor, he ran along the side of the wall while tennis balls pinged just behind him.

Once he reached the corner, he swung round in a wide arc before launching himself towards a springboard near the center. He overshot the mark, but pivoted in a handstand, knocking another ball aside with his feet. Off to the side, a larger cannon rose and with a loud _whump_ it launched a medicine-ball sized orb at Grimm, who spotted it just in time and hit the springboard.

There was an explosion of white powder as the medicine ball burst apart, but Grimm was already sailing upwards in a rolling leap that took him to a new level raised above the others. Another pair of counters lit up and he repeated the exercise he had gone through in the first arena, though the level he was on was much smaller and the cannons that surrounded him were much closer.

He was looking winded, but he continued to fend off every attack, though he missed one throw at the moving targets. The second counter read '10' to start with, while the first counter still registered sixty seconds. Grimm barely managed to hit his tenth target before the first counter reached zero. There was another loud buzz when he hit the tenth target, and a bo staff was raised out of an enclosure on the platform floor.

Grimm leaped and seized it, just as the cannons redoubled the pace of their firing. Tennis balls sped at him from every angle, and his staff became a spinning rotor as he blocked and parried with fluid precision, sending every shot flying back before they could reach him.

_'Woah_._'_ Monique said again, and Kim was unable to stop herself from saying it along with her. Kim stared in grudging admiration of a technique that seemed nearly flawless. Through her own training, she recognized that Grimm's skill must have been honed by this training yard to a razor's edge.

She looked down at her own hands and recalled the numerous duels she had fought against Grimm, and how frustrated she had felt because it seemed that despite her best efforts, she could never break through his defenses. As she watched him block a dizzying volley of attacks from the tennis ball cannons, she began to have a greater understanding of why that was. If Grimm trained this hard, every day, then her own attacks must have seemed to him as if they were coming in slow motion.

A third counter had ticked down from thirty seconds once the super-barrage had begun. By the time it hit zero, the platform around Grimm was rolling with tennis balls. But at last it hit zero and a gong sounded. The cannons stopped firing and began sinking slowly back into their housings and hatches. The tennis balls were all rolling into the rain gutters which now seemed to be collecting them similar to pins in a bowling alley. Grimm kicked a few towards the gutters as the training yard continued to shut down. Finally he looked towards the starting point of the training yard where the loudspeaker was set up next to a concrete changing room.

'Say it....' Grimm called out.

The loudspeaker sparked and Lynn's or Mim's voice sounded across the training yard in a resentful grumble. _'Your kung-fu is better....'_ and as the last cannon sank out of sight, it said, _'...jerk.'_ Grimm smirked and gave his staff another twirl before heading into the changing room.

'Uh, we came out here to see him.' said Monique. 'We gonna wait while he showers or whatever?'

Kim was shaken out of her reflection by Monique's voice. She felt suddenly that she didn't want to give Grimm the satisfaction of knowing they had been watching his performance. 'Let's go, I'm_ so_ not waiting for him.' she said, and she turned back towards the path leading to the house.

_**Part VIII: Breaking Bread**_

It was later in the evening and the sun was going down. Wade sat uncomfortably at a long dinner table made of black marble that was so spotless he was afraid to touch it. He enjoyed quality Japanese cooking, and the dinner laid on the table in front of him looked excellent, but he was afraid to really tuck into it like he wanted to.

Mr. and Mrs. Omo-sa were dressed as if they were attending a formal banquet with heads of state - or maybe it was just how they were used to dressing while they dined. Jade was dressed very uncharacteristically in a beautiful kimono, though she looked very uncomfortable in it.

The only sounds were the gentle clinking of utensils on the flatware, and the occasional sound of a glass being raised and set down. Wade tried desperately to silence any sound of lips smacking or gulping from his throat as he ate and drank. It made eating the meal seem like trying to navigate through a room of sleeping lions.

He wasn't sure if he should try making small talk, so he remained silent, hoping that Mr. or Mrs. Omo-sa would prompt him in some way. The servants brought in new courses and removed other plates with silent precision. At last, after fortune cookies had been brought in, Jade spoke up.

'Oh jeez dad!' she said, slamming down her cookie and breaking it into crumbs. She held aloft the slip of paper which had been inside it. '_Obeying your parents is the only way to be truly happy'_? Could you possibly be any more subtle?'

'I do not control the fortune cookies, daughter.' said Mr. Omo-sa dismissively. 'However, that does sound like very good advice...' He extracted his own fortune slip and looked over it with a smile. 'Ah - _A strong parent is a benefit to the whole world_! Very true - very true indeed!'

Now morbidly curious, Wade split open his own cookie and fished a slip of paper from inside it. Looking down, he read the words, _A strong adversary may lead you to even greater strength_. 'Uh, I think I got _Kim's_ cookie...' he said awkwardly.

'Ah yes, the famous Possible-chan.' said Mr. Omo-sa, as if he had been waiting for a cue. 'As an accomplished man of business, I have followed the careers of many other successful businessmen - including the honorable Nakasumi. Is it true that _you_ were the one who took control of his automated toy manufacturing line after that mad scientist transformed it into a giant robot?'

'Yes,' Wade answered. 'Though it was a little more complicated than that....'

'Such _modesty_!' Mr. Omo-sa said loudly, his voice seeming to bounce off every marble wall. 'To perform so admirably in the midst of such chaos is the mark of true greatness! Tell me, what clues led you to guess the right password?'

Wade hesitated, thinking that he now knew one of the reasons for Mr. Omo-sa's hospitality. Wade saw he had allowed himself to be maneuvered into a position where he might have shared such clues, or divulged the password itself. He didn't know exactly what kind of business Mr. Omo-sa ran, but he was probably a _competitor_ to Nakasumi. And as a competitor, he would certainly be interested in hearing Mr. Nakasumi's secrets. Even older passwords could be used to some advantage.

'There were... a number of things I tried.' he answered cagily. 'In the end I just got lucky.'

Jade sniffed. 'Yeah, _that_ sounds about right.' she said under her breath.

'Again, such modesty!' said Mr. Omo-sa, though his smile seemed a bit more rigid. 'But there is no need for it here, Load-san. If I understand my daughter rightly, you could be here for several days. I assure you I will never rest until I have heard the _full_ tale of your courageous actions.'

'That sounds.... awesome.' Wade said, feeling a bead of sweat on his forehead.

When dinner was finally over, Wade felt as worn out as if he had been interrogated by Dementor. He had dodged several questions, but he knew that Mr. Omo-sa wasn't fooled and that he would try again later.

As he and Jade finally left the table, Mr. Omo-sa's booming voice rolled across the room again. '_Jaaaaaade_!' he shouted.

'What is it, dad?' Jade said, looking exasperated.

'Remember - there will be extra work tomorrow in class to make up for your absence!'

'Yes dad.' Jade said wearily as she left.

'Class?' said Wade.

'Yes, Load-san.' Mr. Omo-sa called from across the room. 'One of the rooms in this house is devoted to study and class work, and I have a private tutor to instruct my Jade. You are welcome to join her in class tomorrow if you wish.'

'Uh....' said Wade, but the Omo-sas were already leaving the dining room through another exit. He hurried to catch up with Jade In the hallway and was surprised to see her shucking her kimono as she walked. Underneath, she was wearing her normal t-shirt, shorts and sandals.

'I can't _stand_ this thing.' she muttered, slinging the kimono over her shoulder. 'Give me a pair of overalls any day....'

'Your folks seem... nice.' said Wade.

Jade snorted. 'Yeah, you saw what a riot our family dinners can be. A million laughs. And a word to the wise - don't feed him any info about Nakasumi. If he thinks he's gotten all the info out of you he can gather, it'll be _sayonara Wade-san_.'

'Duly noted.' said Wade. 'Was he serious about classes?'

'_Was he serious_?' Jade laughed. 'We're talking about a guy whose idea of humor is more homework! Yes, he's serious.' She raised her voice in a passable imitation of her father's grating voice. 'Class begins in the west wing at seven o'clock in the morning! Do not be LATE!!'

'Yeah...' said Wade. He thought maybe their time would be better spent in arranging more search possibilities for Maze and Monkey Fist, but he reasoned he could still do that independently.

'The servants set up computers in the guest house for you to use.' said Jade with a sigh. 'High speed access, multi-screen, printers, the whole nine yards. Anything you think you can jury-rig to find our targets, try it.'

On hearing the word _printers_, Wade's ears pricked up. 'You... don't mind me using them?' he said. 'I'd hate to impose....'

'Knock yourself out.' Jade said, turning and starting down another hallway. 'What, do you good guys need to get permission before you do _anything_?' And she disappeared around another corner while Wade was left near the rear door that led out towards the guest house. Once back in his room, he saw Jade wasn't fibbing. A very contemporary system was set up and ready to go, looking very similar to his own rig at home.

He spied the printer sitting on a stand next to the mainframe, looking quietly innocent. He took out his communicator and shuffled through the photos Kim had sent him. The printer was high-end, and he would have no trouble making the copies Kim wanted - no trouble at all. Compared to other things they had endured, this would be a cakewalk.

And as Wade sat down, he reflected that it was all just a little bit _too _easy....

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At the Fatigable house, Kim had her hands full with Indy. Rhonda's little brother seemed to have a knack for exploring, climbing and hiding. He wasn't as tough as Hana, but it was a near thing. She nearly lost track of him twice before finding him balancing on the bed frame and later hiding in one of her own bags.

Mrs. Fatigable walked by and Kim couldn't stop herself from asking. 'Is Indy some kind of.... super _ninja_ baby?'

'Oh my goodness, no.' said Mrs. Fatigable. 'He's just very curious. I think he may grow up to be an archeologist of some kind. He simply _loves_ exploring. Why, he found three Indian arrow-heads buried in the sandbox out back....'

'He doesn't like _Flippies_, does he?' Kim asked.

Mrs. Fatigable laughed again. 'No, no.' she said. 'Though he does seem to enjoy the kid shows on the Recovery channel...'

As Kim cycled through the house in her attempts to keep up with Indy, she felt her stomach rumbling. It had been twelve hours since her last meal, and she was disappointed that Mrs. Fatigable didn't seem to be making any extra food.

Just as she was gearing herself up to ask about dinner, there was a ring at the front door. Mrs. Fatigable answered and Grimm came in shortly afterwards, carrying a pair of handled paper bags. A delicious smell was around him and Kim felt her stomach rumbling in answer.

'Chow time.' said Grimm. 'But don't expect me to be the one making the deliveries every night, I've got other stuff to do.'

Monique turned up in a flash and Grimm went into the Fatigable's kitchen. Kim followed, but even more than the smell of the food, she found the image of Grimm wearing an orange jumpsuit in Cell Block D bringing a smile to her face.

'What's with _you_?' said Grimm, turning around once they were at the table. 'I've got the patent on smirk in this town.'

'Nothing.' said Kim, smiling even wider.

Grimm raised an eyebrow. 'You're _weird_.' he said.

Monique was bending her head towards the bags, her nostrils twitching. 'I have _never_ found something that seems like it smells better than it tastes.' she said. 'Until now! Where did you get this?'

Grimm shrugged. 'I know a place called 'Sato's' that's supposed to be the best. After eating there, I haven't had any cause to argue with them.'

'This looks like Kim's,' Grimm smiled as he handed her one of the bags before checking a slip of paper. 'Duck confi with roasted potatoes, garlic, and asparagus, a side of red cabbage and apples, slow-braised with apples and red wine, and Sato's famous and ubiquitous 'Peach Fried Pie' and ice cream.'

'And this is Monique's,' he continued, handing her the second bag. 'A Cheddar beer-cheese soup, watermelon salad, a blackened-catfish salad, extra fish, and more Pie and ice cream.'

Then as if he felt he'd said everything that needed saying, he stumped off and left through the front door. Kim and Monique looked at each other, and handed each other their dinners. 'Just like him.' Kim muttered. 'Somehow he knew what our favorite meals were, then he gives us the wrong bags.'

At a nod from Mrs. Fatigable, Monique sat down at the table and started taking caddies out of their bags. 'We're in enemy territory, so to speak.' said Monique. 'How do we know that...' but then she saw a slip of paper taped to the top of the main caddy for Kim's dinner. She pulled it off and opened it. It was a handwritten note that said, '_No, it's not poisoned. GP'_

Monique sniffed, passing the note to Kim, then turned attention to her food. She hesitated, then took a bite. 'Oh!' she said, swirling her tongue. 'Oh, _man_! If this _is_ poison, then please let me live long enough to finish this meal!'

Kim had to admit, the food was phenomenal. And for several minutes, neither she nor Monique said anything, devoting full attention to their meals. When she started on the peach pie, Monique's face took on an expression similar to as if she were getting a back rub from MIdas. Kim had to fight hard to keep a similar expression off of her own face. She figured it wouldn't do for the heroine to be bowled over by a dessert while in the villain's hometown.

Kim heard her Kimmunicator beep and knew it was Wade. 'What's the sitch?' she said quickly.

'We need to talk about.... the _project_ you had me start on.' Wade answered. 'You free?'

'Beep me again in five.' said Kim, and Wade nodded before the screen went black. Kim hurriedly cleaned up after herself, thinking that maybe her _real _dessert was soon to follow...

_**Part IX: Truth Or Consequence**_

Soon she was back in Rhonda's room, closing the door behind her and sitting down at the desk. 'I'm alone Wade - what have you got?' she said.

Wade was biting his lip. 'Good news.. and bad news.' he said.

'What's the _bad_ news...?' Kim said.

'Promise you won't get mad.' said Wade, rubbing the back of his neck.

'Wade, if you don't start spilling....' said Kim dangerously.

'Good news is, I made copies of the pictures just like you wanted.' Wade said hastily. 'Bad news is, I also took the time to run some tests on them...'

'Tests?' said Kim. 'They're _photos_. What could you be testing.... for....' but the truth was dawning on her and she felt a familiar cold chill that said she was about to find out she had been played.

'Forgeries.' said Wade. 'I wanted to believe they were real, but I also wanted to keep in mind who we're dealing with - Grimm Probable, Mr. Misdirection himself.'

Kim sighed. 'Let's hear it, Wade.'

'They're all fakes, Kim.' Wade said, his face grim. 'The pictures, the letters, everything. They're _good_ fakes....'

'As opposed to the _evil _fakes they normally use.' Kim growled.

'Yeah...' said Wade uncomfortably. 'Even through the hi-res copies you sent I could pick up on patterns that show these things aren't the real McCoy. It's kind of like a ballistics test on a bullet. When you know what to look for....'

'And what would have happened if we had tried to use them as evidence in court?' Kim said.

Wade shrugged. 'An expert could prove they were forgeries inside of five minutes.'

'And the people who introduced them...'

'Would have been discredited - maybe even arrested for introducing false evidence. And there's more - I linked up to my computer at home and went through my files. There are copies of photos which match these backgrounds on my computer, along with file photos of the villains. There's also separate photos of Grimm and Rhonda hidden on my hard drives - and probably on your computer at home, too. They're the original unspliced versions of these composites. I'm positive that Jade planted them at some time during our previous encounters.'

Kim slammed her fist on the desk. 'He did this on _purpose_!' she said. 'He _let_ me stay at Rhonda's place and he knew I'd go through those photos!'

'It's a little convoluted,' said Wade, shaking his head. 'But I think you're right. He was planning ahead to make sure you'd be charged with introducing false evidence in any lawsuit that came up. He may not have done it with _you_ in mind, but it does look like he set this up long in advance in case a sitch like this ever came up.' He looked warily at Kim, who was glaring at the photos of Grimm and Rhonda smiling from the corkboard. 'So... do you still want the copies?' he said.

'Any point?' said Kim darkly.

'Not really...' Wade answered.

'Forget it then.' Kim growled, getting to her feet. 'I'm gonna have a talk with our 'host'....'

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Grimm opened the door to his house where Kim had been knocking insistently. '_What_?' he said. 'Didn't like the dinner?'

'Food was fine, the sitch is totally unacceptable.' Kim snarled. 'I found out the truth behind your little 'photo album.'

Grimm raised an eyebrow, smiling, and he stepped out onto the porch, closing the door behind him. They were both dimmed by the twilight and the quiet of the evening air seemed to settle around them. 'I'm not sure why you're steamed.' he said quietly, stepping over towards the rail overlooking the front lawn. 'I think a compliment is in order. I'm impressed that you played it cool and checked them first...'

'Why'd you do it in the first place?' Kim hissed, following him. 'You're still playing your little games when we're supposed to be working together to find Ron and Rhonda!'

Grimm shrugged. 'I thought you might still be hankering to get me arrested. I haven't broken my promise, and I didn't do anything to betray you. It was just a little something I call the seppuku scenario - I only arranged things so that if you betrayed _me_, you'd be the one who took the fall.'

'You double-crossing slime bag!' Kim said.

'Hey, _you_ were the one gearing up to double-cross_ me_, remember?.' Grimm said, a flash of impatience crossing through his voice. But then he seemed to calm down again and he looked out over the lawn as the evening deepened. 'As it turns out, no harm done.' he said. 'I don't have to shred your credibility; your credibility remains unshredded - everyone wins, right?'

Kim felt her face burning, even in the cool evening air. 'Sooner or later you're going to slip up, Probable.' she said. 'And when you do, I'll be there to make sure you get what's coming to you. Military protection, diplomatic immunity - I don't care who you've got lined up on your side, I'll find a way to take you down!'

Grimm didn't answer at once, but kept looking out over the lawn, as if listening to the crickets and other night noises. 'And that's why having you here is gonna be a blast.' he said finally. 'It'll be like having a training yard that follows me around.'

'You just wait.' said Kim, stomping down the stairs from the porch to the sidewalk. 'I'll take you and this town by_ storm_.'

'You do that.' Grimm answered. 'But while you're plotting, you might want to take a little time for sleep. Tomorrow's a big day.'

'What happens tomorrow?' Kim said.

'School.' said Grimm, turning and heading back to the door of his house. 'We've got a whole day's worth of questions to catch up on. Welcome to Riddleton, Kim Possible.'

Coming Soon:

Chapter 20

_What is a place where kids go every day, but no one wants to?_

_Author: Special thanks to Blackbird and cpneb, who supplied info and suggestions for this chapter. Thanks to cpneb for loaning the use of his 'Sato' restaurant from the 'Define Heck' series and for writing up Kim's and Monique's favorite meals. And thanks to everyone who waited patiently for this chapter. It took a while yes, but this chapter has been a long time in development. Introducing Grimm's home town was a big undertaking since it reveals a lot of things that had previously been left to the imagination of the reader. As such, it had to be very carefully crafted to (hopefully) avoid disappointing those who might have preferred the freedom of imagining what it was like._

_The purpose of course was to sow doubt in Kim's mind yet again - is Grimm a villain or not? If he is, why is the DoD turning a blind eye to his activities? If he's not, then... why is he such a jerk?? There will be more on this as the story continues. And first on the list is a visit to Grimm's school!_


	21. Ch 20: School

A Friend In Darkness

All Things Probable 3

A Kim Possible Fanfiction

by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and its affiliates, etc. etc.

Chapter 20  
School

_Or: Too many Questions_

_**Part I: Welcome to Riddleton High**_

Kim followed the _Ksikkihkíni_ through the streets of Riddleton. She noted that nearly every street name had some kind of riddle theme, like 'Conundrum Cul De Sac' and 'Aberration Ave'. 'The people who built this town had _way_ too much spare time on their hands.' she grumbled.

'You think?' said Monique, glancing over from the passenger seat of the Sloth. 'No wonder Mr. Bad-boy grew up with issues.'

Kim and Monique had slept well enough, given the unfamiliar surroundings. Kim had even thought it was kind of cute when Indy fell asleep next to her on the couch mumbling 'Ark!' over and over again.

But a good night sleep hadn't lessened her resentment much. She was still determined to find a way to get criminal charges to stick against Grimm once the truce was over, and had made up her mind to gather as much evidence as she could on her own. She reasoned that since she was on Grimm's territory, she had more chances to come across that evidence as long as she kept a cool head and a sharp eye.

It wasn't long before she saw they were entering an area that screamed 'high school grounds'. There were fewer houses, more trees, and in the middle of a fenced field she saw a large racetrack, bleachers and goal posts. And sure enough, looming just beyond the field was a vast building, compartmentalized with different sections.

She followed Grimm into a huge parking lot and found an open spot near to where Grimm was parking the bike. Rufus crawled into her hip pouch as she stopped the car and got out, with Monique following her and shouldering her book bag.

Grimm was looking surly as he stood next to the bike waiting for them, with Rueful peeking over his shoulder. 'Come on, let's get this over with.' he said.

As they followed him towards the entrance, Kim saw a large flagpole surrounded by a raised dais with planted flowers. In front of the flagpole was a large metal statue of a man wearing a derby and leaning on a cane with a handle that was shaped like a question mark. The statue's pedestal had a large plaque which read '_Our Town Founder: E Nygma_'.

Kim also saw a large marquee on the opposite side of the walkway. It towered above them and Kim read a jumble of letters that said, _'Welcome to Riddleton High: Cyprinidae. Alpha. 10 cents.'_ She stared at the sign in confusion.

'What in the world does _that_ mean?' she said, pointing.

Grimm looked up at the marquee for a moment. He paused, then smiled and snapped his fingers. 'Seize the day.' he said. 'Looks like they went for inspiration for today's message.'

'Seize... the day?' said Monique. She tilted her head, looking at the message. Then she brightened. 'Oh! _Carpe Diem_! I get it!' Kim looked blankly at Monique, shaking her head.

Monique traced her finger in the air, pointing at the marquee. 'Cyprinidae is Latin for carp - you know, the fish? Alpha is the letter A. And ten cents is a 'dime'. _Carp-a-dime_. Get it?'

'Not bad.' said Grimm, nodding. 'You should fit right in.'

'They put _riddles_ on the marquee?' said Kim.

'We're in _Riddleton_ - hello?' said Grimm. 'Get used to this sort of thing. The whole town does stuff like this, and the school has an even bigger kick for it than other places. The teachers like having to make the students _think_ to figure things out, and they rigged the whole place so that you have to solve riddles to find your classes and stuff.'

'That's... the _dumbest_ thing I've ever heard of.' said Kim. 'What if someone can't figure out the answers?'

'They miss class and get tardy slips.' said Grimm, shrugging. 'But believe me, none of the parents want to admit their kids aren't smart enough, so most families do riddle exercises to train them. After a while you just get used to it.'

As they entered the school, Kim heard a nasally, lisping voice. 'Cousin!' She winced, and thought for a moment that somehow her cousin Larry had tracked her down. But the voice was too high and _girlish_, and as she turned, she saw a squat girl about her age . She had thick glasses, braces, and her hair was tied in a somewhat rumpled ponytail. Her vest covered a large, wrinkled t-shirt that was tied into a knot in back. Though why she wanted the shirt to look tighter Kim didn't know. She was a bit out of shape.

But Grimm stopped and smiled at her. 'Cousin Mary!' he said. 'Nice to see you outside the comic book store.'

Kim's mouth fell open. 'Cousin _Mar_y_?' _she said. Mary spared Kim and Monique a passing glance.

'Oh yeah.' Grimm said, rolling his eyes. 'This is Kim and Monique. Visiting. Rhonda missing. Long story.'

'Rhonda's _missing_?' Mary said in her lispy voice. 'But she was supposed to lead up the chess club musical number!'

'I know.' said Grimm, sounding uncomfortable.

'And you know you promised to sub for her if she couldn't make it, right?'

'Yes.' said Grimm, rolling his eyes.

'Well all right.' said Mary. 'The prom rehearsal dance isn't far off, and we've got to get it together before then. This is _real_ life, not a scenario!'

'I hear you.' said Grimm, impatiently but reassuringly. 'Chill out - one of us will be there.'

'Well make sure of it.' said Mary, backing off and wagging her finger. 'You owe me one after that weirdness on my birthday!'

'I said I was sorry....'

'Team Go thought I'd stolen some kind of battle-suit and all you said was 'oops!'

'It was an accident...'

'Yeah, people _accidentally_ do that kind of stuff all the time...'

'Look, do you want us there or not?'

Cousin Mary sighed. 'Yes, just don't pull another 'oops' this time - we've been working on this for months and we want it to go smooth.'

Grimm sighed. 'What'll it take to convince you?'

Mary put out her hand. 'Do the universal promise!' she said.

Grimm sighed again, looking uncomfortably from side to side. 'Come on, Mary...' he said, sheepishly.

'Do iiiiiit!' she said.

Slowly Grimm reached out his hand. They both performed a series of weird gestures which ended with Grimm patting his hand against his cousins, while both of them spoke the same words at the same time.

_'Bah weep graaagnah wheep ni ni bong!'_

Grimm's face was a little red as he felt Monique and Kim staring at them with open mouths. But Mary seemed satisfied and her smile returned. 'See you at the dance cousin!' she said, moving off down the hall. 'Oh and nice to meet you - Chris... and Monocle was it? See ya!' then she turned a corner and was gone.

'Bah weep graaagnah wheep ni ni bong?' said Monique with a lazy drawl.

'It's a geek thing.' said Grimm, shrugging. But before he could say anything else another voice came from the other direction.

'Hey, Grimm!' A brown-haired girl was making her way through the milling students. She was dressed smartly and looked fairly attractive, but Kim saw with a slight shock that her entire right arm was missing, and in its place was a very sophisticated looking prosthetic.

'Hey Felicia.' Grimm said, nodding.

'_Felicia_?' said Kim.

Felicia looked curiously at Kim and Monique. 'Who are the chicks?' she said. 'And where's Rhonda?'

'It's not what you're thinking...' Grimm started, shaking his head.

'Tell it to the _hand_.' Felicia answered, waggling her mechanical fingers.

'They're visitors from out of town.' Grimm said defensively. 'It's kind of an... exchange program.'

'Is that where you've been the last few days?' Felicia said. 'I figured it must have been some _big time_ mission.' she cuffed Grimm with her metal hand, which looked very flexible.

'Easy!' said Grimm with a good-natured smile. 'Everyone knows you're the best engineer in school, and that arm of yours is loaded with funky gadgets. I don't want my arm busted - again.'

'Get _out_.' said Felicia. 'You could dodge me if you wanted to - you just put up with it because Rhonda's my BFF. Speaking of which, where is she? The rest of the chess club is getting frantic.'

Grimm hesitated, and Kim could tell from his expression that he was either tired of saying that Rhonda was missing, or it hurt him too much to keep saying it out loud. 'She's... the one they exchanged with.' said Grimm with a sigh. 'I hope she'll be back soon. I'm just looking after Rueful till then.'

'Well tell her to get a move on.' said Felicia. 'She's supposed to help the chess club prep their musical number for...'

'I know - cousin Mary already read me the riot act.' Grimm sighed.

'Really?.' Felicia said with a grin. 'Now I kind of hope Rhonda doesn't turn up - it'd be cute to see _you_ up on stage singing. Later!' Then she turned and disappeared down the hall.

'Sing?' said Monique slyly. 'It that what you promised to do just now? That _would _be a sight to see.'

'Well, it's not gonna happen because we're gonna bring Rhonda back before then.' Grimm snapped.

Kim stared at him. 'You didn't really want to promise her, did you?' said Kim.

'No.' said Grimm, and his cheeks were flushing. 'I _hate_ being the center of attention. Somehow Rhonda doesn't mind having everyone staring at her, but I've always preferred working from the sidelines.'

'Then why'd you agree to _do_ it just now?' Kim said.

Grimm stared at her. 'Because I promised Rhonda I would.' he said. 'What kind of low-life welches out on a promise to his best friend?'

Kim winced, remembering vividly how she had practically fled from the comic book store when Cousin Larry was introducing her to his friends. The very thought of being seen with people who were that uncool and weird had nearly made her panic. Yet here was Grimm - the louse and the jerk, agreeing to go on stage with the _chess club_ and substitute for his missing girlfriend in a sing along with his dorky cousin.

At this point another voice called out Grimm's name, and Kim wondered how many conversations they'd be having before they finally got to class. Enrique stood in front of Grimm and high-fived him. '_Hola_!' he said, though his eyes quickly fell on Monique. 'And the beautiful Monique - I hope that your first night in Riddleton has been both agreeable and intriguing...'

Monique glared at him and he seemed to get the message, tearing his eyes away from her reluctantly.

'But I came to find you before class,' he said to Grimm. '_El perdador_ wanted to see you about the gymnastics practice schedule....'

Grimm shook his head with a grimace. 'Yeah, I'll _bet_ he does.' Grimm answered, then he turned to Kim. 'Look, just follow the schedule and I'll meet you at class in a few minutes.'

'Gee, a few minutes in the halls without you.' said Kim. 'I miss you already.'

Grimm waved at them dismissively as he and Enrique moved off, vanishing amid the cloud of students. Kim took out the class schedule Grimm had given her. All her courses seemed to be the same as they were back in Middleton, though the times were different. The first class was civics, but she paused, looking at the box where the room number should have been. Instead of a number, there was a sentence.

_First period Civics is as enlightened as the moon - can you find it?_

Both Kim and Monique stared at their schedules. The bold black question mark printed on the back of the light green paper seemed to be taunting them. 'This town is _crazy_.' said Kim.

Monique, perhaps determined because she had understood the marquee riddle, shrugged and turned the schedule upside-down as if it would reveal a hidden code. 'Guess we have to solve our way to class.' she said.

Kim groaned. 'OK.' she said, looking around. 'All the class doors have numbers, so the answer has to be numerical.'

'But _as enlightened as the moon_?' said Monique. 'How do you get a number from that?'

Kim felt a sudden brainstorm. She turned on her Kimmunicator and beeped Wade. 'What up, Kim?' he said off-handedly. He was hunched over several papers, consulting some and taking notes.

'Wade - sorry to bug you, but what phase is the moon in right now?'

Wade looked confused. 'Uh... it's in it's 3rd quarter.' he said. 'Why?'

'Thanks Wade.' she said, turning off the screen and leaving Wade looking very confused as the image faded. She looked over the schedule again. 'Three quarters.' she said quietly. 'That's seventy-five cents.'

'Check room 75?' Monique said, and Kim nodded. Other students looked curiously at them as they made their way down the halls. Apparently having the class schedule out was the mark of a newbie, because several students smiled and chuckled as they walked. She sighed and thought about how classes must be going back in Middleton, and hoping in the back of her mind that Bonnie hadn't crowned herself queen of the High School yet....

_**Part II: An Eye on Things**_

Mr. Dr. Possible paced in the kitchen while Mrs. Dr. Possible squared things away from breakfast. The twins had gone to school, and they were both getting ready for their own jobs.

After the fifteenth time back and forth across the kitchen floor, Mrs. Dr. Possible put the last of the dishes away and turned to her husband. 'Will you _stop_ that?' she said. 'A scientist like you must know it's not accomplishing anything.'

Mr. Dr. Possible stopped, but he went to one of the windows, looking out towards nothing. 'Do you think she's all right?' he said.

'Well,' said Mrs. Dr. Possible, standing next to him and taking his hand. 'She's a Possible... what do _you_ think?'

Mr. Dr. Possible tipped his coffee cup towards her. 'Now _that_ was an intelligent question.'

'She'll be fine.' Mrs. Dr. Possible said. 'I'd say it's that Grimm fellow who has to watch out.'

'But that... _boy_ works for Kim's enemies!' he said. 'What if he was just trying to lure her into a trap?'

Mrs. Dr. Possible patted his shoulder. 'Then I hope he's got medical coverage.' she said. Mr. Dr. Possible stared at her. 'Honey please - Kim is smart and strong. She can take care of herself.'

Mr. Dr. Possible patted her hand and looked back out of the window. 'I _hope_ so...' he said, shaking his head.

Soon, he was heading outside towards the car in the driveway. As he opened the door to get in, he saw something unusual in the branches of one of the trees in the front yard. On a longer limb, mostly barren of leaves, there was a large black crow. Standing out in stark contrast from the grackles, finches and jaybirds which normally filled the morning air with musical piping, the crow let out a single, harsh croak that seemed to cow all other noises into silence.

Mr. Dr. Possible got into his car and started off to work, and didn't give much more thought to it. But all that day, the crow remained perched on the tree branch, it's gleaming eyes fixed on the Possible house....

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In the dim shadows of their hidden lair, Maze stepped out of the immersion pod, seeming tired and short of breath. He fell into one of the rudely cut stone chairs with his head hung down and his hands on his knees.

Monkey Fist stood watching him patiently until his breathing became more regular. 'Well?' he said at last.

Maze looked up. 'My servants have not seen _Mi'kksiistsikomma_ either leaving or entering her house. The rest of her family are simply going back and forth to their work and schooling.'

Monkey Fist nodded, though he seemed troubled. He turned to Dr. Drakken, who was seated at the computer consoles connected to the mini-Ultra Atmospheric Jammer. 'I suppose you are to be congratulated.' he said. 'Your modifications to the Jammer seem to have worked. You are sure our use of it was _not_ detected by Possible's hacker?'

'What did I tell you?' said Drakken triumphantly. 'Beef up the Decryption Matrix a little, add some Encryption subroutines - and lower the power output just a smidgen and you're back under the radar!' He held out his black gloved hand to receive a high-five, waving it in their faces. 'Huh? _Huh??'_ he said expectantly.

Neither Maze nor Monkey Fist responded.

'Nnnnn!' Drakken grunted, turning his hand palm out towards Shego. '_Shego!_ High five me!'

Shego lashed out one of her petrified arms and swatted hard.

'Ow!' Drakken said, shaking his arm in pain.

Ignoring Drakken's antics, Monkey Fist looked back into the cavernous depths of the lair. The framework for Drakken's larger UAJ was taking a more solid shape, with components and wiring now filling parts of the framework, and he looked over it with narrowed eyes. 'But your news about Possible troubles me.' he said softly. 'It's not like her to be so.... _unobtrusive_.'

'_Otaatoyiwa_ may have finished her.' said Maze.

Monkey Fist shook his head. 'If that were true, it would be worldwide news. No - there is something _not right_ about this.'

Maze nodded. 'What should we do?' he said.

Monkey Fist seemed lost in thought. 'For the moment... we continue watching for her.' he said. 'Wherever she might be - she's alone now. She has no significant allies and without the buffoon.... Well, she will be no match for our final onslaught. And that draws nearer each day.'

_**Part III: Darkening**_

Kim and Monique had found seats in the Civics class when Grimm sidled in just before the bell, looking sour. Enrique was right behind him, looking perfectly cheerful, especially as his eyes found Monique again. Grimm said nothing as they took their seats and the bell rang, a high pealing noise that sounded through the entire school.

There was no one at the desk, and Kim wondered if the teacher was sick or something. But the door opened then closed as someone entered the room. Instantly, all the idle chatting ceased and there was a flurry of hands putting away cell phones, PDAs and iPods.

Kim watched as a woman stood behind the desk and looked over the class. She was dressed similarly to how Leigh Gality had dressed back in Middleton. Black leggings, a gray skirt, matching jacket, and a white blouse. She had blonde hair, but the similarities ended there. Whereas Leigh had looked like a supermodel dressed up as a lawyer, this woman looked like an American Gladiator dressed like a schoolmarm.

She was tall, and even though her jacket and blouse covered her modestly, Kim could tell that through the cloth she had a body-builder's physique. Thankfully her _face_ wasn't as mannish as most female bodybuilders - in fact if it weren't for the iron-stiff hair in it's tightly wound bun, she seemed comely. Or she would have except for a stern expression that seemed welded in place. Her heeled shoes clacked on the tiled floor as she turned to face them, and her expression was colder than anything Kim had seen on the Bebes.

Grimm groaned and shook his head as the woman spoke. 'Your normal civics teacher, Mr. Dinkletreeps, fell on his face during a staff meeting and is currently at home recovering from a mild concussion.' she said. Her voice was deep, but still feminine, with a steely edge to it. 'I will substitute until that recovery takes place.' She wrote on the chalkboard, and the entire class grimaced as the chalk made a high squealing noise with every pass across the slate. 'For those who do not know, my name is Ms. Darken.'

_'Ms. Darken??'_ Kim breathed to Monique, who was staring at Ms. Darken as if she too couldn't believe what she was seeing.

_'Possible!'_ Like the crack of a bullwhip, Ms. Darken's voice lashed into her ears, making Kim jump. 'You and your friend _Monique_ are both new to Riddleton.' she said, her voice low but dangerous. 'And as such you may not be aware that in my classes I do not allow anyone to speak _unless they are called on_! Is that understood?'

'Yes Ms. Darken.' Kim answered timidly. And from his desk, Grimm smirked.

Ms. Darken nodded. 'Class, we have guests as part of an exchange program from Middleton High.' she said. 'Kim Possible, and Monique - last name _unknown_. Hence, her last name will formally be 'Unknown' until such time as she chooses to _reveal_ it. Class, please greet our visiting guests.'

Every other student, including Grimm, joined their voices in an unenthusiastic chorus. 'Hello Kim Possible and Monique Unknown.'

Monique looked angry. 'My last name is not....' she said.

_'Silence_, Ms. Unknown!' Ms. Darken barked. 'Now that class is in progress, every complaint will be ignored until the end of the period!'

Monique had a look in her eye that said _'oh you bet I'll be complainin!'_, but she seemed cowed as Ms. Darken took out the roll and began calling names. Kim saw a folded piece of paper land silently on top of her books and opened it. In Grimm's handwriting, the note read, _Welcome to Riddleton High_.

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Kim stood in the hallway after class, tapping her foot while Grimm stood next to her, tapping his. The lesson had been as tough as anything Barkin had dished out, with just as much homework assigned. Monique had insisted on talking to Ms. Darken after class. 'I am not lettin' her get away with calling me _Unknown_!' she spat.

'Let it go.' Grimm said, before she went back into the classroom. 'She won't budge unless you tell her your actual name. She doesn't put up with _individuality_ during school hours.'

'You might think your Ms. Darken is tough,' Monique answered. 'But I've lived with two years of Barkin, and you do _not_ mess with the mystique of Monique!' And she closed the door behind her.

'I warned her.' Grimm muttered.

'Ms. _Darken_?' said Kim, shaking her head.

Grimm scowled. 'Are you gonna do this _every_ time you meet someone here?' he said. 'I thought it was weird when I was at your crazy school, but I kept my mouth shut.'

Kim scowled right back. 'Well pardon me for wondering why this entire city seems like some kind of freaky alternate universe where everyone from Middleton has switched chromosomes.'

'We both live in the _same_ universe, Possible.' Grimm said, checking his book bag. 'You just seem to be having more trouble dealing with it.'

Monique stormed out of the classroom, looking furious and frustrated.

'So, how'd it go?' Grimm said with a knowing smirk. 'Did she sympathize with your 'mystique' argument?'

Monique was walking back and forth like a tiger in a cage, talking to the floor. 'That... tough-talkin', hair-bun wearin' loud mouth battle aaaaaaahhh!!!'

She ended her tirade in a frightened wail as Ms. Darken opened the door at that instant and stepped into the hall. _'Probable!!'_ she bellowed.

'Yes, Ms. Darken.' said Grimm warily, and Rueful quickly slithered into his book bag, zipping it shut behind him.

'Don't _yes Ms. Darken_ me, Probable.' said Ms. Darken, her eyes narrowed into gleaming slits. 'You realize that the Prom Rehearsal dance is less than three days away?'

'Yes, Ms. Darken.' Grimm said again.

'And that you and Ms. Fatigable have been essentially AWOL for several days leading up to the aforementioned prom rehearsal dance?'

'Yes, Ms. Darken.'

'And that Ms. Fatigable - who is supposed to be performing in one of the several talent showcases during the aforementioned rehearsal dance - is _still_ missing?'

'Yes, Ms. Darken.'

She glared at him imperiously, her expression hawk-like. 'What assurances will you offer me that said talent performance will go on as scheduled?'

'I promise that if Rhonda isn't here, I'll sub for her.' he answered. 'I already told Mary and Felicia - so the rest of the chess club should know by now....'

'Very well Probable.' said Ms. Darken, though she still looked at him like a wrathful bird of prey. 'I don't care if you make yourself an unreliable liar - but do _not_ make a liar out of _me_.'

'Yes, Ms. Darken.'

'What's the Prom Rehearsal dance?' Kim said, before she could stop herself, but all further words were quelled as Ms. Darken turned her attention on her. It felt like someone had hit a dimmer switch on the lights, and that the temperature dropped several degrees as Ms. Darken's blue-gray eyes fell on her.

'The Prom Rehearsal dance,' she said, talking as if class were back in session, 'Is a tradition at this high school. All too often, Seniors get the idea in their heads that the Senior Prom is all about riotous excess and vulgarity. The Prom Rehearsal dance was instituted to correct this mis-information. Before the actual Senior Prom, the Seniors conduct a rehearsal dance, under careful supervision, so that all aspects of the Prom itself are structured and properly scheduled. The reckless frivolity of prom night is thus tempered by instruction and practice, making for a much more appropriate setting in which the Seniors are expected to demonstrate that they have not only grown intellectually in this school, but that they have gained social maturity and civic responsibility as well.'

'Huh?' said Rufus, leaning out of Kim's hip pouch and scratching his head.

'And while I am on the subject,' Ms. Darken said, standing directly in front of Kim and Monique and leaning over them like a thundercloud, 'As guests, both you and Ms. Unknown are invited to attend.'

'Do we have a choice?' said Monique.

'Attendance is _mandatory_.' Ms. Darken growled.

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At the Omo-sa house, the private tutor looked at the two desks on front of him with interest. Jade was seated in one, but another desk had been moved in for Wade, who was sitting in on the lessons which were normally taught one-on-one.

Normally, Jade only seemed to half pay attention to the lessons. It was a source of endless frustration for the tutor, who felt that Jade wasn't taking things seriously. Yet despite the difficulty of his lessons, Jade would always ace nearly every assignment, and her in-class answers proved she really _knew_ the material, and wasn't just looking up the answers online later in her room. So despite her indifferent attitude, the tutor couldn't get mad at her. After all, he reasoned, how can you tell someone who gets all the answers right that they're doing something wrong?

But this session was totally different. Jade was focused, even fierce in her performance, and the tutor knew the reason why inside of a few minutes. Wade and Jade kept glaring at each other during every problem, glancing at each other at every question. They seemed to be waging a silent war to prove who was faster and better. As a result, the lesson was going even faster than usual as they tried to outpace each other.

A series of complicated math equations were up on the whiteboard at the moment, and both Wade and Jade were writing with their brows furrowed. The tutor got the impression that their pens were substituting as blades in some kind of intellectual duel.

They both put their pens down at the same time. _'Done_!' they both shouted in unison, and glared at each other yet again.

'I was first!' Jade said.

'Doubtful.' Wade said, idly examining the back of his hand. 'Just like your math.'

'We'll see once tutor-guy looks over the papers!' Jade answered.

'I _have_ a name.' said the tutor. 'It's Mr. Logan.'

'Then grade the papers, Logan-tutor-guy,' said Jade, waving hers in the air. 'So Wade can enjoy the burning smell of his epic failure!'

Mr. Logan sighed and took the papers, looking over their work. After a few minutes he looked up to see both Wade and Jade staring at him expectantly. 'Jade's answers are correct.' he said.

Jade licked her fingertip and tapped herself on the shoulder, making a hissing sound with her lips.

'Wade's answers are also correct.' Mr. Logan finished, and Wade leaned back in his desk, putting his hands behind his head with a satisfied smile.

_'What_?' Jade squealed, leaping to her feet and rushing forward to snatch the papers from Mr. Logan's hand. After looking at it, she shook her head. 'There's no way he could get a right answer from this gobbledy-gook!'

'Ms. Jade, there are _several_ ways to solve this equation...' he started.

But Jade was already underlining several spots on the whiteboard. 'To do it like this you'd have had to ignore the implicit differentiation....'

Wade had joined her at the board, taking up another dry marker and making his own marks. '..that part of the equation was cancelled out by the difference _quotient_...' he said.

And Mr. Logan watched as they both wrote, erased, re-wrote and altered each others work, both of them talking louder and louder as they wrote. Each time one of them erased or crossed over the other's marks, they seemed to take it as a personal insult.

Finally they both slammed their markers down and stepped back, each looking as if they'd proved their point irrefutably before looking at Mr. Logan for confirmation. He looked at the board and their papers. 'You're right again - _both_ of you.' he said. 'As you have both written the same answer. The answer is 'two'.

Both Wade and Jade seemed shocked by this declaration, and started looking over the board again. Mr. Logan smiled. _'We may have been doing Jade a disservice by tutoring her alone.'_ he thought. _'One day of competition seems to have done more than years of wheedling.'_

_**Part IV: Riddle Meat This, Riddle Meat That**_

Kim was relieved all in all when lunch rolled around. Her brain felt like a wrung sponge. Between solving riddles to find each class, and the classes themselves, every minute in Riddleton High felt like an exam in progress.

She stood in line at the cafeteria as the students slowly filed forward and left with their trays. Kim felt a certain degree of trepidation when she saw a large banner behind the counter which read "Riddle Meat Day". A divider blocked her view of what trays the students were choosing from until it was her turn.

She looked down at four large sections to choose from, each covered with a metal lid, and on each lid was a sign.

_Quake IV's villains activated, then deactivated._

_Dracula's downfall._

_This also floats - in China's capital._

_June's Solstice slices the mentor._

Kim looked over each one, then looked up at the stern lunch lady, who stood staring at her. 'What'll it be?' she said.

Kim felt rushed, but none of these riddles made sense to her at all. 'What's the hold up?' shouted someone further back in line. 'Just pick one already!'

Her eyes fell again on _Dracula's downfall_. _'Garlic?'_ she thought. _'Holy water? Sunlight? A stake...'_ And it clicked. 'Steak, please.' she said. And the lunch lady swiftly took a steak from the appropriate tray, then hustled her along. She breathed in relief since the salad section didn't seem to have riddles associated with it. She stocked up on salad material since meat wasn't really her thing. She might have tried something else, but she didn't want to hold up the line.

Monique joined her soon afterwards. 'So you got Dracula's downfall, huh?' she said. 'I thought about it, but cafeteria steak? Can't be very tender.'

'It's... all right.' Kim said. She had cut a piece loose and eaten it since she didn't want to waste food either. She looked at Monique's tray and saw a hearty-looking beef stroganoff. 'Which one was that?' she asked.

'Quake IV's villains.' she said. 'The number of times my brother played through that game... I never wanted to hear the word 'Strogg' again. Came in handy today though.'

Kim looked at her quizzically. 'Strogg - the cyborg villains in the computer game Quake IV.' Monique said. 'Activated, then deactivated. Strogg - On - Off.'

'Oh.' said Kim, and she wasn't sure what disturbed her more, the riddles or the fact that they were starting to make _sense_.

At that moment, Enrique somehow sat down directly between Kim and Monique with his tray of food, summer sausage and vegetables. 'Good food and spectacular beauty.' he said, smiling at Monique. 'What more could one ask?'

'How about - please sit somewhere else?' said Monique curtly. 'You're between me and my friend!'

'Certainly.' Enrique answered, and he smoothly darted to the opposite side of the table, directly across from her. 'The view is even better from here.' The look of fawning adoration was back on his face and he probed blindly at the tray with his fork, his eyes riveted on Monique.

'Me and my big fat mouth...' Monique said, shaking her head.

'And where is Grimm?' he said, his eyes darting left and right for a moment before fixing back on her.

'Don't know - don't care.' said Monique, and Kim nodded, murmuring through a mouthful of salad.

'You seem to dislike him a lot, considering you are his guests.' said Enrique curiously. 'Why do you accept his hospitality if you don't want to be here?'

'We _have_ to be here.' said Kim. 'You heard what he said yesterday - our friend is missing along with his friend. And our friend is the only reason we're staying.'

'And why are _you_ friends with him anyway?' said Monique. 'I mean - you know what he is, right?'

'I know what he is.' said Enrique. 'I also know _who_ he is.' And at Monique's confused expression, he continued. 'I know the kind of person who he is. A few years back, my family lived in this country... illegally.' he said, sounding ashamed. 'We wandered into Riddleton by accident while my father searched for work. It was Grimm who turned us in to the police.'

Kim shook her head. 'He sold you out?' she said. 'And you're his _friend_?'

'Not at first.' he said with a chuckle. 'At first I was angry with him because I thought he had destroyed our lives. We were taken back to Mexico, where... things are not so easy as they are here.'

'So what happened?' said Monique.

'Grimm came to our family afterwards... and showed us a better way.' Enrique said. 'He helped us apply for citizenship. He helped us study what we needed to know, and eventually, it helped us to enter this country _legally_.'

'He sponsored you?'

'No.' said Enrique with another smile. 'He said he did not want us to become lazy by _giving_ us what we needed. He showed us how to _work_ for it. It was not easy - it was a long, hard journey. But in the end... it was worthwhile. We grew stronger from our labors, wiser from our studies. And life is much better now. We have a home - my father has steady work - and our family no longer has to live in fear of _La Migra_ - the immigration police. _Senor_ Grimm showed us that we don't have to break rules to build a better life for ourselves. And for that - he has earned my friendship.'

Kim was dumbfounded, and Monique asked the question that was in Kim's mind. 'We're talking about _Grimm_ right?' she said. 'Grimm _Probable_?' Kim couldn't have agreed more. Probable - on the side of law and order? Turning Enrique's family in, only to _help_ them later by guiding them through the legal path for citizenship?

Her first instinct if she came across a hard luck family with a sob story would have been to try and fix things so they wouldn't be taken away in the first place. Grimm had put them through a tougher road, but in the end, he gave them the tools they needed to make it on their own - without needing to hide behind a patron for the rest of their lives. But was that cruelty or kindness?

'What about his work?' Kim said. 'Don't you think...'

'That he is a hypocrite?' Enrique said, breaking in. 'For insisting that I and my family obey the law while he is a mercenary?' He shrugged. 'As I said - I was angry at him for some time. But I cannot deny the path that he set me on is the better road. Was it any worse than my family's hypocrisy - coming to this country and using it's bounty to elevate our own status while breaking it's laws to do so? What difference should it make to me how others live their lives? What matters is how I live my own life. The good book warns that we should not use the sins of other men as an excuse to cover our own sins.'

'It also says people should cast beams out of their own eyes before trying to cast specks out of someone else's eye.' said Kim, growling.

'Yes - it does.' said Enrique, smiling. 'And that's advice we should _all _follow - no?'

At last Grimm sat down at the table next to Enrique. He had a serving of Peking duck on his tray along with salad and half an apple. 'I love Riddle Meat day.' he said quietly. He noticed Kim staring at him. 'What?' he said, seeming defensive.

'Nothing.' she said, shaking her head.

_**Part V: Be of Good Cheer, Squad**_

It was with relief that Kim reached the end of the school day. Thankfully, she had been able to solve her way to each of the remaining classes, though Ms. Darken had substituted in at least two more.

But when the last bell rang, Grimm didn't head out of the school with the bulk of the other students. Instead, went to his locker and fished out a gym bag. 'Leave if you want to.' he said, waving them off. 'I've got practice.'

'Football?' said Monique. 'You the running back?'

Grimm winced, shouldering his bags while Rueful hopped onto his forearm. 'No.' he said. 'I don't _do_ football.' he said disdainfully.

'You're not a _cheerleader_ are you?' Monique said with a mocking smile.

'I'm on the gymnastics team.' he answered shortly. 'Now _go away_.' And he stumped off down the hall towards the gym.

Kim, Monique and Rufus stared after him for a few seconds. Monique shrugged. 'There's a chance we might see him face plant on the mat.' she said.

'That'll do.' said Kim, and they followed after him.

As they entered the gym, Kim thought they must have stepped through a wormhole that led back to Middleton. It was identical in setup to the gym back home, and exactly the same size. The only difference was that the school colors were two shades of green, and the school symbol was a question mark.

There were two groups gathering for practice in the gym. In one half of the court, springboards, balance beams and pommel horses were set up. A number of boys in gymnast leotards were stretching out, and others were joining them from the locker rooms.

On the other half of the court were a number of girls in cheerleader uniforms. They looked a lot like the Middleton uniforms except they were white and green. Her eye reflexively gravitated to watching the cheer squad, but they also appeared to be warming up and some of them had not arrived.

Her view was suddenly blocked by one of the boys from the cheer squad. Kim's mouth fell open. The boy had a tanned complexion and a pair of exotic looking eyes. His hair fell around his head in neatly styled locks. And even before he spoke, somehow she _knew_ what his name was.

'Haven't seen you before, beautiful.' he said, his eyes twinkling. 'I'm the gymnastics team leader, Donnie Stoneport.'

'Hi... Donnie. I'm Kim, this is Monique.' Kim said weakly while glancing aside at Monique, who was also staring agape at Donnie.

Donnie seemed to have mistaken their amazement for interest and leaned in closer, his eyes focused confidently on Kim. 'Exchange students I bet.' he said. 'I can spot someone who spends her time at the top of the food chain. I can walk you through the ins and outs at Riddleton High - and warn you who's _in_ and who's _out_ as well.'

'Thanks but... Grimm's been showing me around.' Kim said, not believing that she was trying to deflect another guy's attention by using Grimm. 'We're staying at the Fatigables.'

'Probable and Fatigable?' Donnie sneered. 'You don't want to hang around with _them_. They're bad news. I mean sure, Probable got some mad skills, but he's dating Rhonda and she's like the biggest weirdo in the school.'

Despite her utter dislike of Grimm, Kim found herself bristling a little over Donnie's comments for Rhonda's sake. All the other people at Riddleton High seemed to have been bizarre opposites to the people at Middleton, just like Grimm and Rhonda seemed to be opposites to her and Ron. But despite the similarities, there were differences between them all which kept it from being too freaky. Donnie, however, was so much like Bonnie in his mannerisms and even his body language that it was all Kim could do to keep from laughing. The condescension, the arrogance, the elitist snobbery - it was all there.

'But I guess if Probable brought you in tow, it proves he's not a total waste.' Donnie leaned in closer and Kim had to fight the urge to recoil. 'Take it from me Kim - Probable's a jerk. It won't take long before you get totally sick of him. Once that happens, look me up.' He winked again as he stood up and returned to the team.

From the crown of her head to the soles of her feet, Kim felt her skin crawling. It was as if Bonnie had been changed into a _dude_ and was suddenly sweet on her. With a shock she understood why Grimm had stammered and fled when Bonnie had been hitting on him back at home. She felt like running away herself, preferably into the girl's shower room to soak under one of the taps and think happy thoughts.

Monique had a knowing smile on her face. 'So maybe this means deep down that _Bonnie..._'

'Don't...!' Kim interrupted swiftly, '...even _think _it!'

By this time, Grimm had come out of the boys locker rooms dressed in a leotard that matched the rest of the team. It didn't really go with his auburn hair, but beyond that he blended right in with the others. His eyes flicked over to the bleachers, spotting Kim and Monique. He shook his head disdainfully.

Donnie called the squad together. 'All right _losers_,' he said, and Kim shuddered as another wave of Bonnie vibes washed over her, 'The next competition is coming up, and we're not gonna win it the way you've been practicing lately. I want you all to do your routines as if you had _my _skill level - as impossible as that may seem.'

The rest of the squad didn't seem to buy his words completely, but nor did they look as incredulous as Grimm looked, who stood standing at the end of the line and rolling his eyes. Donnie's attention fell on him.

'Probable - since you were the latest to suit up _as usual_, that means you didn't stretch out properly with the rest of the squad. So while the rest of us are doing _real_ gymnastics, you'll stay by the sidelines until you've gone through my coach-approved stretching routines.'

Grimm rolled his eyes again and slouched off to the sidelines near the bleachers while Donnie and the rest of the team began rotating through exercises on the rings, the balance beams and some flips.

Grimm was only a few feet away, and it looked like he was trying to ignore Kim. 'So tell me,' she said, raising an eyebrow and smirking at Grimm. 'If you and I are so much alike, how come you're not _leading_ the Riddleton Gymnastics team?'

Grimm let out a soft laugh as he continued stretching. 'Why would I _want_ to be in charge?' he said. 'Back to back meetings, getting chewed out by the coach when things go wrong, and having to put up with all the hijinx and whining from the rest of the team? What kind of crazy ding-bat _wants_ that kind of mess?'

Kim felt a slight sting at his words, for he had wrapped up the experience of head cheerleader pretty succinctly. But still, there were perks to being in charge. 'I guess I should have known the big chair was _too _big for small fry like you.' she said, trying to sound sly.

Grimm shook his head, smirking. 'You're a plate-glass window.' he said. 'Trying to make me feel jealous or inferior by taking veiled jabs at my masculinity and suggesting that only 'real' men are put in charge of things.'

Kim frowned. Grimm's knack for playing head games gave him an annoyingly cunning gift for seeing straight through any head games someone else was trying to play.

'Have you ever bothered checking _behind_ the throne, Kim?' he went on, looking at her keenly. 'There's a lot of power there. Power that doesn't take nearly as much effort to maintain, and which makes you much less of a target. Take Donnie.' he said, nodding towards the gym floor where Donnie strode among the various team members, shouting instructions, correcting their posture and so on.

'I could lead the team, if I wanted to.' Grimm said. 'But I let Donnie run around, barking out orders, setting team practice times. But everyone on the team knows I'm the best gymnast. And when they want to win, they all look to me. Sure he's tried to get me thrown off the team by setting schedules that I can't comply with. He actually _did_ get me thrown off once. It lasted a week - right up to the next competition. They got thrashed so bad the coach was practically begging me to come back half-way through the match.'

An unpleasant gleam entered his eyes. 'Since then, I've been dropping veiled hints every so often that I've been thinking about asking the coach to be team leader. It's kind of like what you've been doing with Bonnie. Donnie's been in a raging panic every day since I started, wondering when I might start talking to the coach behind his back. You see that dog and pony show he's doing right now with the squad, acting like he's the greatest gymnast on the face of the Earth?'

'He's been trying to spread rumors about me all the time, to make me look bad enough that they won't dump him as team captain. But I just keep practicing and focusing on being the best. The more he bad-mouths me, the more they don't believe him. So by doing next to nothing, I make myself look good and he makes himself look bad. It's win-win for me, no matter how the dice rolls.'

'He's right about one thing though.' Kim said coldly. 'I'm already sick of you.' Grimm smirked, but had finished stretching, and he moved off to join the rest of the squad.

'_Like what you've been doing with Bonnie_?' Monique said when they were alone again. 'Girl, did you pull a _Grimm_ on her?'

Kim flushed. She didn't like anyone drawing any similarities between her and Grimm. 'She was totally badgering the rest of the squad!' she said. 'I just did it to get her to back off and leave them alone.'

Monique paused for a moment, shaking her head. 'Part of me wishes I could have been there to see it.' she said. 'But that's gonna make it tougher for me to slam Grimm when _he_ does it...' And they both fell silent in their thoughts, their attention drifting back to the gym floor.

The gym squad was good - though it was clear that Grimm had the most natural talent and aptitude. Donnie was simply no match for him, and typically wound up shouting things like 'Good hustle, team!', which Kim recognized as attempts to make it look as if Grimm were doing well because of his direction.

The football team practiced mostly outside, so Kim didn't see much of them. But the Riddleton cheer squad had all arrived and begun their practicing further up the basketball court. And they were pitiful. Their routines were stiff and half-hearted, without any dynamics or energy. And Kim saw it was mostly because all of them were keeping half an eye on the gym team, giggling furtively. Ms. Darken stood on the opposite side of the court, watching everything, shaking her head and grimacing every time someone on the cheer squad took a fall. And they fell a lot.

After their fifth attempt at forming a pyramid failed with another collapse, Kim couldn't stand it any longer. 'Guys!' she said, stumping forward, and the squad turned to her, looking at her with obvious stranger anxiety. Kim lowered her voice. 'You're embarrassing all of girl-kind like that!' she said. 'Keep your eyes off the gym team and keep your heads in the game!'

'Yeah?' said one of the girls, a younger-looking one who seemed to be the rookie, 'I suppose _you_ think you can do better?'

'What's your name?' Kim said, her eyes snapping onto her.

'Charlamagne.' she said. 'But everyone just calls me Charlie.'

'Well listen Charlie,' Kim said. 'You're one of the spunkiest ones on the squad, but you're wasting your time trying to prove you're as tough as the others when you've got other roles you should be filling. You're the smallest and the lightest - you should be at the _top_ of the pyramid, not the bottom or the middle.'

Charlie looked like she wanted to argue, but she fell silent with an expression that clearly said, _yeah that makes sense_. Kim asked the rest of the squad to sound off.

'Rachel.' said a girl with short crimson red hair.

'Aimee.' said another with flowing brown hair and a tan complexion.

'Jessie.' said another with curly brown hair.

'Tina.' said a taller, thinner girl with strawberry-blonde hair.

'Heather.' said one, who looked more exotic than the others.

'Jackie.' said another.

'Haya.' said the last, a Japanese girl with a pony-tail.

Kim started walking among them and re-arranging them. 'Tina, you're the tallest, you should be the center the squad forms up around. Jackie, you're the strongest, you should stay next to her so you can be in a better position to catch the falling players during pyramid routines. Aimee, Jessie, Heather, Rachel - you're all good tumblers. You need to stay on the wings and keep the crowd focused on you so the other members can set up the complicated stuff. Haya, you should be joining with Charlie for the moves that need the highest jumps.' Once she had them re-arranged, she stepped back. 'All right - go through one of your routines and let's see how it looks now.'

The squad seemed to agree, but they were still shuffling as if they didn't know what to do. 'Um.... we don't really _have_ any set routines.' said Rachel sheepishly. 'Do you... know any?'

'Here, let me help.' she said, and she took a set of spare poms from the floor by the sidelines. She reset the boom box and stood in front of the rest of the Riddleton squad, waited for the song to go into it's second measure, then went through one of the basic routines she used for drills on the Middleton squad.

'It goes, step step, pirouette, step step pirouette, arabesque, pirouette, arabesque, pirouette - the step step and slide - step step and slide - pirouette and kick with the left and split!'

Slowly the Riddleton cheerleaders picked up the rhythm and started following her lead. Before long, they were matching her to the point where Kim could start adding more advanced moves to the mix. To their credit, they managed to keep up with her.

'That's it!' Kim said. 'Now kick with the left, kick with the right and handspring back and pirouette and _pose_!'

The song ended, the squad wound up in a group pose that looked as if it had been choreographed for a magazine cover. There was a sudden outbreak of clapping and whistling. The gymnastics class had stopped their practicing to watch and they were all applauding, except for Grimm, who stood at the sidelines next to Felicia with an annoyed expression.

'You're amazing!' said Rachel, and a look of sheep-like loyalty was on her face. 'It's like you've done this a million times! I don't think we've ever performed that well.'

'It's no big.' said Kim, and from the bleachers, Monique loudly cleared her throat. 'I mean... thanks.' she ended.

Ms. Darken watched the whole thing from the sidelines. Her left eyebrow raised almost imperceptibly.

'Wow!' said Felicia, elbowing Grimm in the ribs. 'I don't think I've _ever _seen Ms. Darken that impressed...' Grimm let out a low growl and said nothing.

'Kim Possible!' Ms. Darken was walking briskly up to the cheer squad, who looked wary at her approach. 'You're heading up the cheer squad for the duration of your stay in Riddleton.'

Kim set down the poms and shook her head. 'I'm just visiting, and you've already got a leader on the squad. I wouldn't feel right taking her place...'

'Uh, we kind of don't have a squad leader either.' said Rachel. 'We were all just kind of... winging it.'

'An embarrassingly accurate summation.' said Ms. Darken, her steely eyes flicking across the rest of the squad. 'We haven't had a squad with decent organization all year. Thank goodness the sports teams haven't _needed_ them for their wins. But I get tired of Riddleton High winning most of its games and then getting mocked by other schools because of our pathetic cheerleading.'

'They're not pathetic.' said Kim. 'They just need...'

'A _leader_.' said Ms. Darken, cutting across her. 'I quite agree. I know a natural when I see one. It would be an insult to you and this school to ignore that kind of talent. You're in, Possible.'

Charlie was looking just as eagerly at her. 'Uh, Kim?' she said, her earlier bravado now faded to timidity. 'Ms. Darken is right. I mean, you saw us - we stink. We could really use your help.' The rest of the squad shuffled nervously, but all of them were nodding and looking at Kim with pleading eyes.

'Work up some routines and bring them tomorrow.' said Ms. Darken, as if the matter were settled. 'And _don't_ stop working the squad until they've got them down pat. Maybe _some_ of what you've got will rub off on the rest of them before you go.' Then she turned and walked away as regally and stiffly as if she were balancing a book on her head.

The squad was still looking at her. 'Pleeeeeeese?' said Rachel pitifully.

Kim sighed. 'All right...' she said, and immediately, they all whooped and threw their poms into the air.

_**Part VI: Angst 2.0**_

'Hey Possible - way to go!'

'Saw your moves, Possible. Can't wait to see the squad once you're done with them!'

'You looking for a BFF while you're here?'

'Possible, you should totally hang with us after school..!'

Comments like this followed Kim like a rippling wave wherever she went through the halls on her way out. Grimm followed a few steps behind her, looking unsurprised but also slightly grumpy.

When they were finally outside and moving towards the Sloth and the _Ksikkihkíni_, Kim finally spoke to Grimm directly. 'Well this is interesting.' she said smugly. 'I've only been here one day, and I'm already more popular at your school than you are.'

'I don't doubt it.' said Grimm, taking a helmet out of the trunk. 'Popularity isn't my bag. I've never wanted the spotlight - in fact, sometimes the spotlight can be colder than backstage.'

'Quit ripping off Knight of Faerun.' said Monique.

'What?' said Grimm with a shrug. 'He's smart.' Then he got onto the bike, with Rueful scurrying into his backpack.

'Hey, waitasec!' said Monique. 'Where are you off to?'

'Home.' he said. 'School's over for the day - go back and help Mrs. Fatigable with Indy.'

'What about our _jobs_?'

Grimm looked at her in confusion. '_What_ jobs?'

Monique rolled her eyes. 'You said you arranged for us to be transferred to the Riddleton branch of Club Banana while we were here.' she said. 'So where is it?'

'Get real.' said Grimm, sounding peeved. 'That was just a dodge to get your boss in Middleton to give you some time off without firing you. No one's expecting either of you to show up for work out here.'

Monique stood there sputtering. 'But... our _jobs_...!'

'Are totally safe and will be waiting whenever you decide to go back to Middleton.' said Grimm impatiently. 'As far as they're concerned, you're working at the Riddleton branch and putting your time in fair and square. So stop worrying. Do your homework - get some training in - whatever, I don't care. I hear Kim's got some _cheer routines_ to work on....' And with that he started the bike and zoomed off.

Kim and Monique stood staring after him for a few seconds. 'That.... _jerk_!' Monique said at last. 'What if we needed the money, he ever think of that?'

'There's nothing we can do about it right now.' said Kim, sounding resigned. Secretly, she was grateful that she wouldn't have to deal with a job on top of everything else while she was in Riddleton. Whatever she had said to Ron, having a job while going to school, being a cheerleader _and_ doing missions had been more of a pain than anything else. 'Let's just go back and be glad that things are OK back home.'

'If he wasn't lying about _that _too....' said Monique darkly.

- + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - +

Grimm finished his homework with a heavy sigh. Ms. Darken had been as merciless as usual, but a few hours steady going and he'd caught up with everything. He checked the email at his computer again. The only thing in his inbox was the one message he had been bouncing back and forth to Jade all evening.

Subject: Jade

Any word from Twitch yet? Any alerts from your detector?

GP

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Subject: Jade

Any word from Twitch yet? Any alerts from your detector?

No and no

Please stop asking - I get the message.

I'll let you know as soon as it happens!

- J

He closed his inbox, his mind troubled. He found himself thinking again of what had happened during gymnastics practice, how Possible had literally swept the entire school off their feet in one afternoon. Whatever he had said, he was jealous. Not of the attention Kim had gotten, but how effortlessly it had seemed to happen.

He worked hard at being the best, and hard work was what he believed in. He'd earned his skills and his stripes with blood, sweat and tears, and smugly knew how much he was respected for it, even though no one ever said anything flat out. He worked from the sidelines, out of the spotlight. It was where he was most effective.

But there was a difference between being the best and having _charisma_. And he couldn't deny that Possible had charisma - an indefinable _something_ that just made people like her - want to follow her. Even he had felt it, though he would sooner have worked for free than admit it.

He tapped his finger on the desk, remembering a night several months ago in Drakken's lair, when Kim had broken in and confronted him.

_Kim glared up at him. Then she unbuckled her backpack, letting it drop to the floor with a thud. Then she threw her grapple gun down next to it. 'I didn't come here to fight. I came to talk.'_

_Grimm felt confused for one brief instant. Then his cocky smile was back in place. 'Talk is cheap Kim. If you're thinking to divert me, think again.'_

_'I haven't stopped thinking since our last fight.' Kim said. 'Thinking about what you said. And... you were right about me.'_

_Grimm shook his head. 'Nice try, Kim.' he said. 'But girls don't ever admit that guys are right - about anything!'_

_'I do.' said Kim. 'Can we talk... alone?' she said with a pointed glance at Rhonda._

And with resentment, he remembered how he had dismissed Rhonda - his best friend - to check the corridors so he could be alone with Kim.

_'I understand you a lot better than you think.' Kim had said. 'I know you spend a lot of nights awake wondering if you'll ever find anyone. Worried, that in spite of everything you've done, no matter how skilled you are, that it still won't impress anyone enough to want to go out with you.'_

_Grimm glared at her. 'How do you know that?' he said._

_'Because I know me.' she said. 'And I felt the same way.' Kim looked up at him. 'We're not... so different.'_

_Grimm chuckled, thinking he could see where she was going. 'Nice.' he said. 'Is this where I'm supposed to say that you and I were destined for each other - and I repent and forsake my evil ways? Or do you expect me to believe that you're prepared to walk away from your life just so we can go out?'_

_'I'm not asking for either.' said Kim. 'I'm just asking... for a chance.'_

_Grimm raised an eyebrow. 'A chance for what?' And despite his training, despite knowing how dangerous Possible was, he found himself doing nothing while she came up to him and took his hand. He felt his mouth going dry. His mercenary work had kept him pretty much dateless through all of high school. He hid it behind his air of cockiness, but one thing he had really wanted for a long time was someone who really understood him - a kindred spirit - a girlfriend._

_And he had realized with a shock that Kim was just such a person. They were on opposite sides of the fence, but they were similar in so many ways, and more than anyone else, she seemed to understand him. Her eyes were so green - deep and beautiful. For a moment he found himself lost in those eyes, soothed by the sound of her voice, and thinking about... possibilities...._

_'Is this so bad?' Kim said, squeezing his hand lightly. _

_Grimm's eyes softened for the briefest moment. 'I...' he said, but in the reflection of Kim's shining eyes, he saw a flicker of movement. He whirled around and saw Ron standing at the console. 'You!' he said, his voice furious. And in a splintered second, all of what he had just felt withered into ashes._

_He - the master player - had been played. Played by a girl with a pretty face and charisma. And he felt a rage like he'd never felt before as Kim, the girl he had actually thought he might care for, clamped an electro-magnetic manacle around his wrist...._

He hadn't let on how deep it had cut him, being played and having the rug pulled out from under him so neatly. And suffering the humiliation of being captured and thrown into a police wagon just like all the other super-villains he'd seen on TV reports. He'd laughed while watching those reports, at how careless those villains had been.

While handcuffed in the police wagon, he'd been ready to swear off girls forever. The first one he had ever thought he might like and she'd burned him. Then Rhonda had turned it all around with four words.

_'Out there... in here....'_

He didn't want to admit this to anyone else either - but the time he'd spent shipping with Rhonda had been the must fun he'd ever had. They'd been friends forever, but somehow being able to hold hands with her, and kiss her... had changed everything. Plus getting even with Possible in the Zorpox sitch had been icing on the cake.

His eye drifted to the photographs on the wall which Rhonda had taken, capturing Kim Possible's anger and humiliation. But without Rhonda, it just didn't seem as funny. Grimm stared at the pictures for a few minutes, then got up with a growl and started collecting his practice clothes and the communicator. He glanced up at the hole near the ceiling that was his only window and saw things fading to a dim grayish blue.

_'Almost sundown.'_ he thought. _'Well - some darkmatching in the training yard could be useful.'_ Then he headed out of his room towards the stairs.

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Kim and Monique had also set to their homework once they were back at the Fatigables. Kim had a tough time focusing with Indy crawling around her, over her and under her while she sat at the couch. On the other hand, he had sat nearly still, watching while Kim went in the backyard to work on some routine ideas for the Riddleton cheer squad. He laughed and clapped during some of the trickier flips, and even managed a somersault of his own.

Monique seemed unsure what to do with herself. As long as Kim had known her, Monique had been a hard worker, and she suspected that this sudden time off had left her feeling confused. She had tried helping out with Indy, but it was clear that she didn't have as much of a knack for it as Kim.

Another meal had been delivered from Sato's, and Monique seemed distant while they ate, using a fork to prod her food back and forth, but not eating much.

'Something wrong with your order?' said Kim, who was enjoying her meal so much she was sure it was somehow triggering endorphin releases higher than average.

'No.' said Monique. 'I'm just... _bored_ I guess. Do you know how long it's been since I had a day off?'

Kim shook her head, and found herself suddenly curious.

_'Never_.' Monique said at last.

'Then you should enjoy it while it lasts.' said Kim.

Monique laughed, and Kim could sense bitterness in it. 'I don't really _know_ how to enjoy myself.' she said softly. 'I've never had time to.'

Kim blinked. 'Monique - is everything OK? You've been kind of... _wiggy_ since we left Riddleton High.'

Monique set her fork down quietly. 'I was just... kind of _counting_ on working at Club Banana while I was here.' she said.

Kim smiled and bumped shoulders with her. 'I think we can go a few days without the latest catalog.' she said.

'It wasn't about keeping up on the fashions - or having extra time for homework.' Monique said quickly. 'Even if our jobs are waiting when we go back, the time I'm _not _working is still time I'm not earning anything! My parents need the extra money for...' She stopped, seeming to catch herself and looking embarrassed.

'Monique?' Kim said. 'Spill - why do your parents need extra money?'

'House payments.' Monique said, almost in a whisper. 'They had an adjustable rate mortgage when they got the house, and it's been adjusting _up_ lately. We've had to go without some things to make the payments.'

'What things?' Kim said, alarmed. 'Monique, you're not...'

'It's nothing drastic.' said Monique, shaking her head. 'We're not starving or anything. But we've dropped cable, newspapers and a few other things here and there. We _had_ to.'

Kim was stunned. Monique had never spoken much about her life - somehow whenever they got together, it was always _Kim_ who got focused on - her life, her missions, her problems. She'd just assumed, since Monique had never spoken about it, that she didn't _have_ any problems to deal with. 'You... never said anything.' Kim said, quietly.

Monique lowered her head. 'I didn't want to distract you.' she said. 'You've got enough to deal with every day without little ol' Monique throwing her problems on the pile next to everyone else's.'

'Monique... I _help_ people with their problems.' she said. 'That's what I do.'

'Saving the world from Drakken or Senor Senior Senior is one thing.' Monique answered. 'Helping a family that's just getting by month by month? That's something else.'

'Monique...'

'Look... just drop it.' said Monique, standing up. 'And... forget I said anything. Really. There's nothing you can do anyway.'

Kim felt helpless as Monique went out through the sliding glass door and into the backyard. She didn't stop, but went out through the back fence and into the wooded area behind the house.

Kim looked at her best friend's half-eaten meal, and felt a stab of anger at Grimm. For all his smoothness and skill, he was still ham-handed in dealing with people. He had taken Monique out of work without any regard for how it might affect her - or her family. And even as she thought about it, she could practically hear his voice in her head.

_'So what? She said she was ready to help you out, right? She agreed to come with you, didn't she? If she didn't mean it, then she can bail anytime she wants.'_

And Kim felt ashamed. After the battle in Basalton, she had sent Monique home, given her every chance to step away from the sitch and take care of her own house. But she had come back, asking her forgiveness, and begging for the chance to prove she was a true friend. Once again, it was _Kim_ and her problems that Monique had focused on, setting them before her own needs and even her own family.

Kim felt sudden tears lurking behind her eyes and got up quickly to clear away the dishes, trying to focus on something else. Her eyes lingered on the gate where Monique had disappeared.

_'You came along to prove you were good enough to be my friend.'_ Kim thought, _'For what it's worth - I think you're a better friend than I am...'_

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Monique wasn't sure why she left the house, or where she was going. She just knew that she couldn't stay in the same room with Kim, couldn't face her pitying eyes. She regretted having said anything to her. Now whenever Kim looked at her or talked to her, she'd have to deal with her BFF's silent pity. She ran her hand over her eyes, dashing away a tear.

_'Why'd you have to open your big mouth?'_ she thought. _'Kim punches goons through plate glass windows - she doesn't raise money for families just because they can't afford cable_!'

She found herself a few dozen yards away from the house, having followed a thin path into a wooded glade. There was a clearing that looked like a glowing, green dome, with the fading sunlight still captured among the overhanging leaves. An occasional shaft of yellow light stabbed down through the canopy above. All was quiet except for a soft rustling. There was a sawed stump in the clearing that caught her attention. It was the exact height of a chair seat, and she felt drawn to sit down there.

The wood was hard, but not uncomfortable. As she settled down, Monique saw several signs nailed to the trunks of the trees in front of her, only a few feet away.

_Calm. Peace. Tranquility_.

Monique chuckled. She had obviously wandered into one of Rhonda's haunts. Looking around further still, she saw an Indian dream weaver hanging from one of the tree branches, and in the knot of another tree there was a carving that looked like a bear paw. The ground right in front of her was dug into what looked like a fire pit, with a stack of dead wood piled next to it.

She wasn't sure why, but she found herself tipping branches and logs into pit. She fished a lighter out of her pocket and before long she had a small fire crackling in front of her. The night wasn't that cold, but the yellow glow was oddly soothing.

Sitting back down on the stump, she looked back at the signs. _Tranquility_. It didn't seem like the sort of thing for a mercenary/villain team to post up in one of their hideouts. But she closed her eyes and listened to the fire popping, and the endless sighing of the leaves.

It was nice, she thought. It wasn't doing anything to actually fix her problems, but somehow she just _felt_ better. The warmth from the fire stole over her like a warm bath, and she felt her mind drifting....

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Kim went back upstairs after cleaning up with Indy twisting and fidgeting in her arms. He toddled off and disappeared under the bed while she took out her Kimmunicator and started trying different frequencies.

Ever since the previous night, she had been trying to contact someone from Middleton - her parents, Felix, even Ned if she could figure out how. But a wall of static met every attempt to call anyone outside. She went through the range of frequencies incrementally, hoping that at least one of them would break through. She needed a contact outside to try and zero in on Riddleton, so she could blow the whistle on Grimm's cushy little setup. But she felt a growing frustration as every attempt met with failure.

So she was surprised when the static suddenly formed into a clear image showing Dr. Director, sitting behind her desk as normal. 'Possible.' she said. 'You're raising quite a ruckus.'

'Dr. Director!' Kim said. 'I'm _so_ glad I got in touch with you - I need you to....'

'It's not going to happen, Kim.' she said, breaking across her.

'What?' she said. 'Listen, you know that mercenary team I told you about? I'm right here in their hometown... I mean their _lair_. If you can pinpoint my signal, you can...'

'Your signal didn't reach me, Kim.' Dr. Director said, shaking her head. 'I came to Riddleton to contact _you_.'

Kim stared. 'Riddleton...' she said. 'You _know_ about Riddleton?'

'I'm here to ask you to _stop_ trying to expose Riddleton to media attention.' she said seriously.

'What?' said Kim. 'But Team Probable engages in _criminal_ activities! I thought you'd want to _help...'_

Dr. Director sighed. 'Kim - I knew about the existence of Probable and his group before you asked me back at our base in England. I didn't want to lie to you - but Riddleton is ranked with code five levels of security. It's classified top secret. And you would be doing more harm than good if you keep trying to penetrate the wall of secrecy around that city.'

Kim couldn't believe her ears. 'What are you saying?' she said. 'That you want to let Team Probable just... _get away_ with what they're doing?'

'It's not as simple as that.' said Dr. Director, shaking her head. 'Team Probable has fed us covert information about several super-villain activities. In exchange for that information, we've given him a certain amount of..... _leeway_.'

'Probable... works for _you_?' Kim said, her voice rising.

Dr. Director gave a hollow laugh. 'No - he's a mercenary. I honestly wish he _did_ work for Global Justice - he's very skilled at what he does. But the intel he's given us has been valuable enough that I've had word from the very top to leave him alone.'

'I don't believe this!' Kim said. 'Global Justice makes deals with criminals?'

Dr. Director sighed again. 'Kim... do you know how Global Justice got word about the Transducer you stole from the last HenchCo convention?'

'Wade told me about it.' said Kim.

Dr. Director shook her head. 'He told you after we told _him_. And we told him after Probable passed the word to us. He was also the one who fed Big Daddy the info on Duff Killigan when you partnered with Agent Du. He's given us valuable intel on a number of occasions. He's never actively worked with us...'

'Of course not!' Kim snapped. 'Because he's just been stringing you along with tidbits to keep you off his back!'

'Kim - listen to me. This is bigger than your feud with Probable. If you persist in trying to draw attention to Riddleton, you'll set off a firestorm. Riddleton is full of dignitaries, covert operatives, ambassadors, military brass - and their families. Everything in that city is equal to the protection it's given. If the media, and by association the public, started broadcasting the town's location it would draw spies, thugs, snipers and terrorists like moths to a flame. There would be massive chaos, trying to find a new safe haven. The lives of hundreds could be set at risk - not to mention any national secrets which any spy might find as a result. Would you risk innocent lives just to settle a personal grudge with _one_ mercenary?'

Kim looked down for a moment. 'It _can't_ be that cut and dried.' she said. 'There has to be a way to bring him to justice without hurting anyone else.'

'If you can think if a way, I'd be delighted to hear it.' Dr. Director answered. 'But until then I strongly urge you to stop anything you may be planning with regard to Riddleton and it's inhabitants.'

Kim sighed heavily. 'I'll get back to you on that.' she said.

'I hope not.' said Dr. Director heavily. 'I've kept the Riddleton black operatives from moving in on you up until now. They've honored my request because of the work I do. But they're monitoring every attempt you make to contact the outside, and after this call ends, the matter passes out of my hands. If you make any more attempts to break the electronic fence surrounding Riddleton, their orders are to arrest you in the name of national security - and they know _exactly_ where you are.'

'You're kidding.' Kim said.

'Note serious face, Kim.' she answered. 'I say this as a friend - _please_ listen to what I've told you and act accordingly. If I need to speak to you again, I'll contact you, not the other way around.' Then the Kimmunicator screen went black and the static popped up a moment later, hissing in her ears.

Kim took off the Kimmunicator and threw it angrily into her book bag. But she had to chase after it a few seconds later as Indy popped up, snatched the Kimmunicator and disappeared back under the bed with a laugh.

_**Part VII: Could Be Teen Spirit**_

_Ron was pacing back and forth. Without any discernable 'ground' in the spirit world, it wound up looking more as if he were dog paddling. But his voice was high and shrill as he spoke, as if to himself._

_'Does Kim love me? I mean... what if she doesn't? What if she does, but she changes her mind later on? What if she's changing her mind right now?'_

_Rhonda sighed. Ever since their conversation about what had happened when Kim had lost and then regained her memory, Ron had been in a state of thinly veiled panic. He had been pondering, fretting over and micro-parsing what Kim might have meant by saying 'I think I love you' instead of simply 'I love you'._

_'I think I love you?' he squeaked. 'As in - I think I'd like salad for dinner, but if something better turns up I think I'll change my mind?'_

_It had gone on for what felt like hours, with Ron drifting back and forth between doubt and semi-doubt, until Rhonda just wanted some quiet. Finally she put her hands over her eyes. 'Ron?' she said, raising her voice to cut across his squealing. 'Why does it matter to you - if she's doubting or not?'_

_This did indeed make Ron pause. 'Because...' he said with a slight blush, 'I really like her, and I want her to really like me.'_

_'Why?' she said again._

_'Why?' Ron sputtered. 'Because she's the best thing that's ever happened to me, that's why! I've been her friend for ages and... if we weren't best friends I don't know what I'd do.'_

_Rhonda nodded. 'OK. Have you ever told her that?'_

_'No!' Ron said. 'Guys don't talk like that - it's fruity!'_

_'Well, if she's not sure how you feel, then how can she be sure about how she feels?'_

_Ron sputtered again, but didn't answer. At last he said a bit defensively, 'Yeah, well does Grimm know how you feel?'_

_'I.... THINK so.' she said with a short laugh. 'But... if I ever get out of this place... I'm gonna make sure he knows.'_

_Silence fell again, and Rhonda found herself thinking about what she had just said. She and Grimm had been shipping for several months - but they'd been friends since Pre-K. They knew each other really well, and sometimes it felt they knew each other well that they didn't need to say anything, or talk about their feelings. But more than anything else now - she wanted to talk about how she felt._

_And as the emotional longing to speak to him set in, the mists around her grew pale and drew aside. She gasped, looking as if through cloudy glass at a wooded glade that looked familiar. And she also saw Monique, sitting on the sawed stump of a tree in front of a campfire, looking as if she were meditating._

_'Hey!' she shouted. 'I see your best friend's.... best friend!' _

_Ron whirled, looking around, but could only see Rhonda staring in front of herself with a dazed look in her eyes. 'What? Where? I can't see it!'_

_Rhonda look a closer look at the grove and where Monique was sitting. 'Hey.... this is my stay-in-touch-with-nature spot!' she said. 'They're in Riddleton.... Grimm brought them to Riddleton?'_

_'Where's Riddleton?' Ron said. 'What's happening?'_

_'It's our hometown.' Rhonda said. 'Woah... Grimm must really be desperate if he showed them where we live.'_

_'Man this tanks!' Ron said, pulling at his hair. 'How come I can't see her? I was the one training you!'_

_'Yeah, well you're not exactly following what you taught me.' Rhonda said. 'What happened to Yamanouchi, and inner peace and serenity and all that stuff?'_

_Ron stopped his pacing. 'Right.' he said. 'I forgot the guy who needs the Ron-man's training the most is the Ron-man... So, what's Monique doing?'_

_'She's just... sitting there.' said Rhonda. 'Maybe she's been reading my 'peace and tranquility' signs.'_

_'Maybe that's why you can see her!' Ron said. 'Because you're... in synch somehow!'_

_Rhonda had to admit there might be something to his idea. She had been feeling emotion, dwelling on what she might say to Grimm if she could talk to him again, and Monique also looked like she was trying to get something off her mind. 'If Monique's in Riddleton, then pom-pon must be there too.' she said. 'They came all this way to try and save you.... that should give you a pretty good idea how she feels.'_

_And through Ron's mask of doubt, there came a faint, grateful smile._

_And then the vision was open to his eyes as well, suddenly and clearly. He could see Monique sitting quietly in the grove, a pale fire blazing in front of her. 'Woah - trippy!' he whispered._

_'Hey, welcome aboard!' Rhonda said, smiling as his eyes focused on the same things that she was seeing._

_Ron reached out and tried to tap Monique's shoulder, but his hand passed through her. 'Still can't touch anything...' he said, trying to keep frustration out of his voice and maintain the good vibes he was feeling. 'And I can't see Rufus or Rueful anywhere - they were the only ones who could see us.'_

_'Maybe animals can see spirit stuff easier than people can.' Rhonda said. 'I bet the tree-hugger who teaches my Earth Sciences class would love to know that.'_

_'So what do we do?' Ron said. 'There's no telling how long this will last...'_

_'Every time I come here to meditate, animals would always come up and hassle me.' Rhonda said. She puffed a few times as if gearing up to lift something heavy, then held out her hand. Ron looked at her questioningly. 'It worked better when we were touching somehow.' she said. 'Maybe spirit strength is something that can be pooled.'_

_'For what?' Ron said, taking her hand. 'What are you gonna do?'_

_But Rhonda was already sitting in the Lotus position, her eyes closed, and a look of concentration and calm on her face. 'Come on, animal friends...' she muttered. 'If you can hear me, I need your help....'_

_Ron wasn't sure exactly what Rhonda was trying to do, but he could sense that she felt it was important, and he focused on keeping himself focused. Nothing seemed to be happening, but he soon saw a flashing light wink in and then out in the air in front of Monique. It was joined by another, and then another, until Monique was surrounded by tiny, blinking lights._

_'Fireflies...' Rhonda said quietly. 'The first time I really noticed my connection with the forest, these were the animals that followed me. They made signs and symbols in the air for me.'_

_'Will they do it again?' Ron said hopefully. _

_'I think so.' said Rhonda. 'What do you want them to say...?'_

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Monique felt her glumness fading away. She wasn't sure what kind of mojo the grove had, but she liked it. She felt a little ashamed, thinking that she had made a fuss over nothing. Her family would come through somehow - she was sure of it. And it didn't do anyone any good at all to just spread the worry around. She was just getting ready to get up and go back inside when she felt something land on her nose.

_'Ewww, bugs!'_ she thought, and she swatted, slapping herself on the face as whatever it was took flight and avoided her hand. Her eyes opened. The fire had burned low to embers, but there was another source of light further away in front of her. And her mouth fell open.

A swarm of fireflies were hovering in the air, their wings making a soft rattling sound. But they were arranged unnaturally, their glowing abdomens forming a pattern of light that traced out a single word.

_BOOYA_

Monique stared in amazement, wondering if she were seeing things, or had maybe fallen asleep. Convinced that she wasn't imagining, she reached out to the hovering swarm. They broke formation and she drew back, worried that she had ruined something amazing. But the fireflies reformed into another word and she put her hands over her mouth.

_MON_

She was simultaneously frightened and enchanted. Sudden understanding broke over her, and she spoke in a faint whisper.

_'Ron....?'_

The lights scattered and reformed.

_YO_

'Ron...' she said again, talking to the shimmering lights in front of her. She wanted to run and get Kim, but she was terrified of leaving and ending whatever was happening. She felt silly, talking to fireflies, but if there was any chance that Ron was watching, that he knew something they didn't... 'We're trying to save you - but we can't reach you! What should we do?' she pleaded.

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_Rhonda was breathing hard, as if she had run a minute mile. 'Whatever you want to tell her, hurry!' she said. 'I don't know how long I can keep this up!'_

_Ron nodded, fighting with his own confusion and hesitation. How could he tell Monique what to do to save them when he wasn't sure himself? Finally, he settled on telling her what he had been telling himself ever since he was banished to the spirit world...._

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Monique watched as the fireflies fluttered and buzzed, re-arranging themselves and slowly forming one word after another.

_TELL - KIM - NOT - 2 - GIVE - UP_

Sudden tears welled in her eyes as two more words took shape.

_LOVE - HER_

And the fireflies scattered around her, flying up into the dim twilight while she reached after them.

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_The vision around them faded, though Ron could still see Monique faintly, like a shadowy ghost moving through the mists around him._

_'That's it...' said Rhonda, gasping. 'I'm tapped out...'_

_'It's OK!' said Ron. 'It worked - the message got through! I don't know what good it'll do, but at least they'll know we're all right.' He kept his eyes focused on Monique, who seemed to be running, and he lifted Rhonda up, following after her. But as Monique passed into what looked like a house, the vision faded completely and shadowy mist surrounded them...._

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'_Kim!'_ Monique shouted, thundering up the steps towards Rhonda's room. Kim was sitting at the desk, looking angry about something, but her expression softened when she saw the look on Monique's face.

'Monique, what's the sitch...?'

'_I saw Ron! He's OK! I talked to him...!'_

Kim stared. 'What?' she said.

But Monique was nearly babbling in her haste. 'Well OK, I didn't actually _see_ him, I was in the woods back there when it got darker and these fireflies came out - and they started _texting_ in the air in front of me and it was like Ron was there telling them what to write and...'

'Monique!' Kim said, her voice soft. 'You're kind of freaking me out here...'

'Booya - he said _booya_!' Monique said.

'He _always_ says booya.' Kim answered.

'With _fireflies_?'

'Monique - _please_!' Kim said loudly, getting up and taking her by the shoulders. 'Do you have any idea how this sounds...?'

But to her surprise, Rufus had leaped out of his pouch, scurried up Kim's arm and perched on Monique's shoulder, waving his tiny clawed arms at Kim and shaking his head. 'Mmm-mm! Mmm-mmm!' he squeaked.

Kim stared in confusion, but Monique was looking at Rufus as if they were sharing some kind of understanding. 'You saw him too, didn't you?' she said. 'Was that what you were trying to tell us back at Wade's place?'

'Mmm-hmm! Mmm-hmm!' Rufus nodded, giving a thumbs-up sign.

Monique plucked him up and gave him a gentle hug with her hands. 'You're the freakiest pink thing I ever seen, but right now I love you!' she said.

Kim sat back down, flabbergasted. Either both Monique and Rufus had lost their minds, or... 'You're _serious_?' Kim breathed. 'You _talked to him?_' With sudden and fiery intensity, she leaned forward. '_What did he say?'_

Monique was shaking in her excitement. 'Well he was spellin' things out with fireflies, so he didn't get in much, but he said _don't give up_. And he said... he loves you.'

Kim leaned back in the chair, and for several seconds she said nothing, a roil of several emotions coursing through her....

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'You talked to them? _You?'_ Grimm was glaring at Monique and looking angry. Kim was still battling with her anger at Grimm, but for the moment they were still allies and she felt they should call him over and tell him what had happened.

She had expected him to be skeptical at first, like she had, but Grimm seemed to accept the story without question. But instead of seeming glad that Ron had somehow contacted them, he looked frustrated.

'So you believe us?' she said.

'Of course I do.' he snapped, pacing back and forth in Rhonda's room. 'I was there the first time Rhonda pulled that trick with the fireflies. Ron may have been telling them what to write this time, but it was Rhonda's mojo that made it possible. That means wherever Ron is, Rhonda's right there with him.'

'So why you illin' like that?' Monique said. 'Thought you'd be glad your GF came through.'

'_I_ should have been the one she contacted first!' he snarled. 'I'm her boyfriend! I'm the one who....' and he paused, his cheeks flushing red. 'Who cares for her.' he finished. 'Why you and not _me_?'

Monique shrugged, feeling uncomfortable with his obvious jealousy and anger. 'I donno.' she said. 'Maybe 'cause you were too busy messing with our heads...'

Grimm looked even angrier for a moment, but then he stepped back as if considering. 'What were you _doing_ when you saw this?'

'I was just chillin' in the woods back there.' she answered.

'In Rhonda's sanctum sanctorum?'

'In her.... her _whuh_?' Monique said.

'Her _sanctorum_ - the place where she goes to focus her powers!'

'I... guess so.' Monique answered. 'Just looked like a bunch of trees to me.'

Grimm turned, dashed out of the room and down the stairs. Kim and Monique hurried after him as he bolted through the back door, through the yard and into the glade. It was dark by then, and only a few coals remained smoldering in the fire pit. He had fished Rueful out of his pack and set him gently on the ground, where he stood on his hind legs, his nose snuffling in the air.

Kim and Monique stared at him in silence. He was looking around the grove as if he expected to see something, but at least Rueful let out a low trill and shook his head. Grimm's eyes lowered and he was biting his lip. 'Whatever they had going here, it's gone now.' he said quietly. He stared hard at Monique. 'If it happens again - _call me_.' he said fiercely 'I don't care if it's 3 o'clock in the morning, I want to know.' and he stumped out of the grove and back into the house.

He had already left by the time they went back inside. 'Some first day, huh?' said Monique.

Kim laughed weakly. 'Yeah.' she said. 'Listen - what Grimm said just now. Call _me_ before you call him, will you?'

'You know it girlfriend.' she said. Then she paused. 'If it happens _again_? Does this mean they could be watching us right now? Watching us all the time? Oh man - when am I supposed to _shower_?'

'Ron's a gentleman, don't worry.' said Kim with a smile, remembering a night on the shores of a beach outside of Big Daddy's casino. 'He knows when to look away.'

'He _better_.' Monique grumbled. 'Or I'll punch so hard his _spirit _will feel it...'

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Once Kim and Monique were back inside, they didn't see Grimm double back and re-enter the grove. He sat down on the stump and began chanting to the Great Bear Spirit again, keeping his head bowed. Rueful scurried around him, his eyes darting back and forth.

There was no way he was going to give Possible the satisfaction of knowing how hard this had hit him, or how desperate he was to see something for himself. He knew after his experience at Kamp Kwitcherbeliakin that it _was_ possible to spiritually see someone.

_Tell Kim not to give up and I love her_.

He felt resentful. _'It should have been me!'_ he thought. _'I've been trying to contact you since this happened, Great Bear Spirit. Why won't you answer? I let myself be turned to stone for her and I know I saw her then - why can't I see her now?'_ He struck his knees with his fists. _'It should have been me.....'_

There was a sudden beeping from his hip pouch and he fished out his communicator impatiently. 'What's the sitch?' he said, trying to keep his voice even and not take his frustration out on Jade.

'I know the day's mostly over, G-Man.' she said. 'But you just got a hit on your website.'

Grimm sighed and shook his head. 'Tell them they'll have to wait.' he answered. 'I've already said, I'm not taking any more jobs until Rhonda's back.'

'It's Mr. Matter.' said Jade quickly.

This made Grimm pause. 'You're kidding.' he said. 'We haven't heard from him since I was in...'

'Junior High.' Jade said. 'I know.'

He sighed again. 'I really don't want to be distracted from finding Rhonda.' he said. 'I think she's found a way to start sending messages from the spirit world, and I don't want to miss any of them because I was too busy...'

'Well, this job doesn't sound tough.' Jade said. 'And since anything that involves bringing Rhonda back kind of involves finding Monkey Fist, I don't think this mission will distract you too much. We're stalled with Monkey Fist until Twitch gets back to us.'

For a few seconds there was silence. Then he spoke again, still sounding reluctant. 'All right, get the low-down from Mr. Matter while we gear up. Call us back in five.'

Jade stared at him. 'What's this 'we' I just heard?' she said. 'You can't be thinking...'

'...of bringing Possible along?' Grimm interrupted, smiling faintly. 'That's exactly what I'm thinking. I went on a mission with _her_ and put up with the goofiness. I hope she's ready to go merc, because this time she's coming on a mission with _me_.'

_Coming Soon:_

_Chapter 21_

_When you do this with evil, you risk playing by evil's rules..._

_Author: Turnabout is fair play. As you've probably noticed, these chapters set in Riddleton were a flimsy excuse for me run Kim through the same gauntlet that Grimm had to go through when he was in Middleton. First meeting the families, then going to school, then going on a mission. We've gone through most of that - and once it's done, we can get back to pushing the MAIN plot along!_

_Special thanks goes to fanfiction author DarkWarrior on this one, because a while back, he wrote a neat story called 'The First Odd Job', which profiled how Grimm first became a mercenary. I'll be lifting bits and bobs from that tale to write the next chapter. If you want to read it and get some clues as to what will happen, then I recommend reading (and reviewing) his story!_

_.net/s/3900910/1/_


	22. Ch 21: Compromise

A Friend In Darkness

All Things Probable 3

A Kim Possible Fanfiction

by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and its affiliates, etc. etc.

Chapter 21  
Compromise

_Or: Heart of the Matter_

Mr. Matter strode back and forth across his control room, where dozens of screens and instruments were performing a ballet of light and sound before his eyes. 'Excellent!' he said, though the room was empty. 'Soon my plans for global domination will be finalized, and once I have moved into the deployment phase, the entire world will tremble before the genius of... Mr. Matter!'

He leaned back his head and clenched both of his gloved fists, sending a cackling laugh echoing through the large control room. Once it was done he took a deep breath and wiped his forehead. 'Ooooh, that was a _good_ one!' he said, delighted. 'I think all those hours of practicing laughter have really paid off!'

He smiled at the thought of the next HenchCo convention. It seemed every year that all the attendees could never remember his name - Professor Dementor, Killigan, the WEE bigwigs, even Dr. Drakken. Each convention he attended, he was always asked the same thing - _Ah, who were you again?_ It was a source of constant vexation to him. Even villains that he considered sub-par, like the Mathter, furrowed their brows in confusion and asked who he was - despite the fact that he had a _name tag_ like everyone else.

But all of that would change once he took over the world. And he smirked as he thought about the other villains. For all their fame, none of them had taken over the world yet. They were too high-profile. Every hero in the world was on the watch for them, spying on them around the clock. _Yes,_ he thought - _you only need to take over once_. And to do that, you needed a cunning plan that would catch the fools at Global Justice off their guard. As a lesser-known villain, he felt he was ironically in a much better position to launch his schemes.

He looked from side to side and snorted. 'And those lunkheads weren't here to see my brilliant speech!' he sniffed. He glanced up to the surveillance cameras. 'Ah, but the security system will have it on tape!' he cackled. 'I'd better burn a DVD copy of it before I forget... It'll be historic viewing someday - Mr. Matter begins his rise to power!'

He scuttled to the main panel and brought up a screen which was supposed to be linked to Control Room camera. But he frowned as he saw a haze of static. _'Malfunctioning?'_ he thought. _'How dare this equipment malfunction during the best rant I've ever pulled off!'_

Underneath the window was a scrollbar showing thumbnail representations of all the other cameras in the lair, and he saw something odd. He scrolled through them, bringing up one camera after the other, and saw only the same static, hearing the same hiss of white noise.

_'All of the cameras are down?'_ he thought,_ 'What could possibly cause all the surveillance cameras to...'_ then he stopped. _'Of course! Global Justice - or Team Impossible - or that teenager Kim-something-something...! Somehow some meddlesome heroes have gotten wind of my plans and sent someone to come after me! Well, we'll soon see about that!'_

He punched a red button on the console. 'My idiot minions!' he shouted into a microphone, 'We have a security breach! Report to the control room at once!' He waited several seconds, but nothing happened. Again, he shouted into the mike. 'Get in here, you useless lumps of muscle! What in the world am I paying you for?'

He repeatedly jabbed at a large red button with ALERT stamped on it in black. But beyond a soft _clicking_ sound, nothing happened. The lair was utterly silent. 'Egad!' he shouted. 'They've taken out the security system as well?' He was feeling a bit nervous by now, and the dim shadows of the control room, which he kept darker on purpose for a more villainous effect, now seemed threatening. He was sure someone was moving towards him silently - getting closer and closer....

'Minions!' he yelled. 'Spring forward and defend your master!'

Then he heard firm footfalls behind him. Mr. Matter whirled around, and through the darkness, he saw hands reaching out to seize him....

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_'What?' _said Kim. She was in the hallway at Rhonda's house, just outside of Rhonda's room. She had been about to get ready for bed when she heard a knock and found Grimm waiting in the hall.

'I said a mercenary mission just came up.' said Grimm. 'You in?'

Kim sputtered in disbelief. 'What makes you think I'd go out and _help_ you do jobs for your villain buddies?'

Grimm smirked. 'Just thought I'd offer. I know you're still trying to scrape together enough evidence to put me in jail - what better way than to come along and document one of my missions?'

Kim frowned. There was something entirely too smug about the way he was treating this chance for her to gain 'evidence' against him. After the fiasco with Rhonda's photo album, she found herself feeling more cautious. 'I don't believe anything you say anymore.' said Kim. 'What's the catch?'

'No catch.' said Grimm. 'I just had so much fun helping you take out Gill, I thought you might enjoy a walk on the wild side.'

'As _if_.' said Kim.

Grimm was walking back to the stairs which led down to the living room. 'I already beeped Enrique - he volunteers as a stand-in for Rhonda sometimes. We'll be waiting outside in a few minutes. If you've got the guts - come along. Or stay here, hide under the bed and let the _men_ take care of it.' Then he disappeared down the stairs.

Kim felt her face going red and incoherent sounds of anger gurgling in her throat. _'If_ I've got the...' she stammered. 'Let the _men_ take care of...?' It was blatant manipulation and she knew it - a barb with none of the subtlety that Grimm usually showed. But as far as buttons went, that was perhaps one of the hottest ones Grimm could have pushed.

She stormed over to the door for the guest room. Before she could knock, it opened and showed Monique staring at her with a cunning eye. 'Did... you... _hear_ that?' Kim said.

'Uh huh.' said Monique. 'You know he said it on purpose to get you mad, right?'

'Yes!' Kim said.

'You know he's got a lot of girls on his team and he didn't mean a word of it, right?'

'Yes!'

'We're still going on this mission, aren't we?'

'_Snap_, yes!' said Kim.

From Kim's hip pouch, Rufus smiled faintly and clapped a pawed hand to his forehead.

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As quickly as they could, they geared up and went outside the Fatigable house, gathering by the curb underneath a street light where the Sloth was parked. Grimm and Enrique were already there standing next to the _Ksikkihkíni_, with Rueful peering over Grimm's shoulder and sniffing the night air. Enrique's eyes sparkled as soon as he saw Monique, who flinched and stayed a step behind Kim.

'So what's the sitch?' said Kim. 'If it involves stealing anything, forget it.'

Grimm smirked. 'Unless it involves stealing from Professor Dementor or HenchCo?' he said slyly. 'You'd be fine with _that_, right? I may have to take tips from you on how to steal if that's the case - Dementor said you were a pretty good thief.'

Kim gritted her teeth, her fists clenched. 'That was...' she sputtered, her cheeks reddening again, 'Drakken _tricked_ us!'

'The same Drakken you keep saying is a pathetic loser?' Grimm shot back. 'Who's the real loser? The loser - or the people who let themselves get tricked by a loser?'

'Why don't you and _Monkey Fist_ get together and figure that out?' Kim spat.

Grimm's eyes narrowed and his own face seemed to redden a bit, but Monique shot forward. 'How about you sitch us first? You can play verbal lawn darts _after_ we learn if the mission's a zero or not.'

'Fine,' Grimm said, holding up his communicator. 'Jade - sitch me.'

'Wade, patch us in.' said Kim, both her and Grimm looking determinedly away from each other and at their video screens. Jade popped up an instant later.

'I didn't get much more out of Matter.' Jade said, taking a sucker out of her mouth. 'He wanted to fill you in personally. He only said he was having trouble at his lair.'

Grimm nodded. 'Where does he want to meet?'

'The diner.' said Jade. 'I think he's there right now.'

'On it.' Grimm said. 'But stand by - we'll probably need more info once he's given us the details.' Jade nodded and saluted as the communicator screen blacked out.

'Senor Grimm,' said Enrique quickly, with half an eye still on Monique, 'I was thinking - two guys on a motorcycle - _no es macho_. Since Kim has a car, perhaps I might... go with the senoritas?'

Grimm rolled his eyes, but looked questioningly at Kim. Kim rolled her eyes as well. 'Backseat.' she said, jerking her thumb towards the Sloth.

'Excellent!' Enrique said, delighted. 'As we are joining forces on this mission, it is for the good of the team that we get to know each other as best we can, and the backseat is the perfect place for quiet conversation....'

Monique was suddenly looking at him with a smile. 'It sure is, homeboy.' she said. 'And if it's quiet conversation you want, have I got a partner for _you_....'

Within moments they were speeding down the streets of Riddleton with Grimm in the lead. Monique sat in the passenger side front seat of the Sloth. Enrique was in back, and buckled next to him was Rufus. The mole rat smiled and waved at Enrique, winking at him and growling playfully.

Enrique sighed, looking up towards the heavens through the roof of the car. 'This is _not_ what I had in mind...' he said mournfully.

'Well that mission brief taught us _nothing_.' said Kim to the dashboard speaker. 'Are mercenary mission briefings always that lean on intel?'

'The initial contact - yeah.' Grimm answered, his voice crackling back through the speaker. 'You have to understand that almost every client is paranoid about something. Paranoid about being caught, paranoid about sharing their secrets, paranoid that someone will rip off their ideas... Sometimes you don't get the actual mission details until a second or third meeting.'

'And what if you decide you don't _want_ the mission?' Kim said.

'Play it Belgian.' Grimm answered. Kim paused and shrugged to Monique who shrugged back, but didn't seem to understand it any better than Kim did. 'The time-honored art of _waffling_.' Grimm continued. 'Some double-talk here, some cagey phrases there... A few questions answered with questions of your own... They do it too of course. It's kind of like talking to a used car salesman, but as long as you're patient you can usually waffle it out of them.'

'You'd be better off taking jobs with clients who play it _straight_.' said Kim. 'When you don't take jobs from the bad guys, you don't have to worry about your clients pulling a fast one on you.'

'Not every client's a "bad guy".' said Grimm's voice, 'Sometimes clients are victims of espionage and they hire us to get their stuff _back_. Sometimes the clients are people you'd actually like, Possible. You might want to give them a chance before you write them off.'

'So what kind of villain is this client anyway?' Kim said.

'He's not really a _villain_.' said Grimm. 'He's more like a villain _wannabe_. He made a fortune as a business tycoon and was able to retire early. But he got bored with that pretty quick and decided he needed something to occupy his time....'

'And he decided super-villainy was the way to go?' Kim said.

'Pretty much.'

Kim groaned and shook her head. 'Why do bored rich people always try to _take over_ the world?' she said. 'How come none of them ever try becoming super _heroes_?'

'Thing is, a lot of them believe they _are_ heroes.' said Grimm. 'Most of them think they're the smartest people on Earth, and that their ideas for running things are the best. And they want to prove it to the world whether the world wants it or not. It never occurs to most of them that the world could do just fine _without_ them.'

'You'd think that fact that none of them have taken over the world yet would be a big tip-off.' Kim said, grumbling as she kept her eyes on traffic. 'That and the fact that no one _likes_ them. People don't like being bossed around by jerks who think they're better than everyone else.'

'It's the same thing I told you before.' Grimm's voice answered. 'You can present them with all kinds of facts and evidence that their ideas won't work, but they'll totally ignore it. Even when their lairs are blowing up around them, they'll still insist that the only reason their plans failed is because everyone else was too stupid to realize how brilliant they are. Heads up, we're almost there.'

Grimm was turning into a square, paved lot with a small building in the center. Kim followed, parking in an empty spot and getting out to look at where they were. It looked like a shabby restaurant. The parking lot was rough, broken in some spots with potholes. The building had a large sign that blared white in the darkness with black letters that read '_The Losers' Last Chance Diner'_. The large plate glass windows that spread across every wall of the diner looked piercingly white against the surrounding darkness, but even so, it couldn't hide the dinginess of the restaurant interior.

Grimm and Enrique were already heading inside and Kim and Monique followed. A scratchy radio was playing in the background. Linoleum and chrome seemed to be the dominant theme. A smattering of faded photographs behind greasy panes of glass lined the walls above the windows, along with a number of rusty road signs.

The diner seemed to be deserted except for a lone waitress who stared at them from behind the counter as if the arrival of customers was something she hadn't planned on. But from one of the corner booths, a figure shot up.

'Mr. Probable! I'm glad you came so quickly!' He gestured them towards the booth, seeming wary of the others.

Kim stared. The man was dressed in a white lab coat and black boots He wore industrial rubber gloves and had a pair of welding goggles pushed up onto his forehead. His hair was thick and bushy, but slightly unkempt, as if he started each day by sticking his finger into an electrical socket. The coat had an indented stripe across the front that looked like a stylized letter M.

'Mr. Matter - it's been a while.' said Grimm with a nod. He went to the booth and the others followed him, squeezing into the upholstered U-shaped bench that surrounded the table. Enrique didn't sit down.

'Should I get the usual, Senor Grimm?' he said, jerking a thumb towards the counter.

'Yeah,' said Grimm, handing him a twenty dollar bill. 'You guys like smoothies?' he said, 'They make a berry-banana here that's to die for.' Kim and Monique shrugged, doubting that anything the diner made would be good, and Enrique moved off to the counter. 'So what's the sitch, Mr. Matter?' said Grimm. 'Jade said you were having problems at your lair, but she didn't give me any more details.'

Mr. Matter's face contracted. 'I didn't want to discuss it over a wire.' he said peevishly. 'It's rather embarrassing, but I currently don't _have_ a lair - it's a long story....'

'I'm all ears.' said Grimm, leaning back against the upholstery. Enrique returned with several cups and handed them out before eagerly sitting down next to Monique. He also brought a nacho caddy, which both Rueful and Rufus noticed. They sprang from their respective pouches and started nibbling at the chips, pausing every so often to lean in and growl at each other.

But Mr. Matter was still looking at the others suspiciously. 'Have you... expanded your team since I hired you last?' he said. 'I thought I remembered you having a _blonde_ girl in your group. Did she dye her hair red?'

'These guys are on board for this mission.' said Grimm. 'They're OK. This is my friend Enrique, this is Monique, and her friend - Kim Possible.'

Mr. Matter sprang to his feet, pointing at Kim with his eyes blazing. 'I _thought_ I recognized you!' he shouted. 'You're that crime fighting girl all the other villains keep raving about!' He turned to Grimm, looking furious. 'You've betrayed me!' he said. 'You're in on the whole thing with them, aren't you? Whatever they're paying you I'll double it once....'

'Matter - chill!' said Grimm. 'Yeah, she's a crime fighter, but right now I'm guessing you're the victim - which means she's on your side.'

Mr. Matter sank back down slowly into his seat. 'But... to accept _help_ from a hero?' he said quietly. 'What will the other villains say at the next convention?'

'No need for them to know about this, I'd say.' Grimm answered. 'Who's gonna tell them?'

'Well... I suppose even if they heard about it they wouldn't believe it.' Mr. Matter said more doubtfully. 'I'm not sure I believe it either... You're _sure_ she's not here to arrest me?'

Grimm shrugged, taking a sip through the straw of his cup. 'Let's ask.' he said, turning to Kim. 'You here to arrest him?'

'Arrest him?' said Kim, 'I've never even _heard_ of this guy. Why is he called "Mr. Matter" anyway? Can he control matter or something?'

'Not exactly.' Grimm said. 'He calls himself Mr. Matter because he's _made_ of matter.'

Kim blinked. 'But... _everyone_ is made of matter!' she said.

'Indeed yes!' said Mr. Matter, rubbing his hands together. 'But with my brilliant _gray_ matter, I will soon take over the world, and then all matter will be under my sway! Hahahaha-_haaaaaaaaaaaa_!!'

Kim felt her mouth hanging open and closed it. Her hopes of gathering enough evidence to jail Grimm faded. She wasn't sure she could get a _local_ judge to arrest Mr. Matter, never mind State or Federal. If she presented a 'villain' like him as evidence, she might be laughed out of court.

'Coolness.' said Grimm, with a warning glance at Kim. 'So what's your latest plan?'

'Ah.... well....' said Mr. Matter, suddenly twiddling his gloved fingers, 'There are a few snags that I've run into, but I have every confidence that they'll clear up.'

'And one of those snags involves your mansio... ah, your _lair_?' said Kim, trying to get him to focus on the actual task he wanted them to do. _ 'Maybe if his plan is 'criminal' enough....' _she thought.

'Alas, true.' said Mr. Matter, now clutching at the air above him, his face taking on a grieved appearance. 'I'm afraid that I'm no longer in control of my lair - I need you to get it back for me!'

'Kind of like old times.' said Grimm with a faint smile. 'What is it - another malfunctioning security system?'

'Sort of.' said Mr. Matter with an angry grimace. 'As you may recall, the security system which I installed in my mans... ah, my _lair_, was brought into a state of malfunction because of my two henchmen, H1 and H2.'

'That was like _my_ first job! How did you regain control?' said Kim, curious.

'Oh, Probable jumped through some lasers or something, details - details!' said Mr. Matter, waving his hand.

Kim shook her head. Here was yet another way in which her life and Grimm's seemed to intersect.

'He didn't seem all that sure about taking the money I offered him until that girlfriend of his convinced him...' Mr. Matter said.

She shook her head again. So it was _Rhonda_ who had steered him into working for money? She glanced at Grimm and wondered what he might have been like if Rhonda hadn't put in her two bits at just the _wrong_ time.

'I remember.' said Grimm. 'Go on.'

'The situation is similar now, but different. It seems my henchmen are _rebelling_ against me.'

Grimm's eyes opened a little wider. 'Rebelling?' he said. 'I thought those guys worshipped the ground you walked on.'

'So did I!' said Mr. Matter, wringing his hands. 'That's why I kept them around - I've never had a minute's trouble from them before - at least in terms of loyalty. True they're ham-handed, ignorant goofwads; and neither one of them could think their way out of wet tissue paper, but they were always obedient! Now all of a sudden, they throw me out of my own lair and they've sealed it against me - madness!'

'Can you think of any reason why they'd do it?' said Grimm, punching information onto his communicator.

'None whatsoever!' said Mr. Matter angrily. 'I can only deduce that they've spent one day too many admiring all my stuff and they've decided that they want it for themselves.'

'You_ do_ have a lot of stuff....' said Grimm, smirking.

'Yes, and I _miss_ it!' said Mr. Matter with another glare. 'So if you'll just... do whatever you did last time and get my lair back, I'll pay you the same as before.'

'If we do, what'll happen to your henchmen?' said Kim suspiciously.

'They'll be punished severely!' said Mr. Matter with a crazed grin. Kim leaned her Kimmunicator closer to record anything villainous he said as he ranted on. 'I'll lock both of them in the _Tickle Dome_ for an hour or so! That will teach them the consequences of defying my will! Mwuh-ha hahahahahaaaaaaah!'

Kim turned off her Kimmunicator, a feeling of disappointment and embarrassment sinking into her. There was no way anyone would take him seriously enough that they would throw Grimm in jail by association. 'Fine, let's get it over with before anyone I _know_ sees us together.'

Mr. Matter turned to her with an appraising look, then turned back to Grimm. 'She's a lot _lippier_ than the blonde was.' he said.

'Tell me about it.' said Grimm, smirking. 'Don't worry Mr. Matter - we'll get your lair back. Team Probable is on the case!'

'That's your team battle cry?' said Monique, finishing her smoothie. 'Pretty _lame_.'

Grimm shrugged. 'Fine.' he said, standing up. 'Team Probable - transform and roll out!'

Kim groaned as everyone but her and Monique cheered and headed for the door, even Rufus. '_Boys_.' said Monique, shaking her head.

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Within half an hour, Kim found herself parking the Sloth a few dozen yards away from a vast complex. They were in what looked like a huge gated community within a colossal gated community, having been admitted through a wrought-iron gate with the words 'Manor Meadows' in the arch at the top.

Grimm seemed to know the way, though Mr. Matter was now in the backseat with Enrique, giving Kim directions as she drove until they reached their destination. Kim looked around and saw nothing but large manors and mansions with high gates all around. Clearly they were in a section of Riddleton set aside for the richer people to build their manors and try to out-do each other in terms of the opulence of their yards.

Nearly every mansion was set on a hill, and Kim caught distant glimpses of hedge mazes, pools, statues and all the other useless trappings of people who had more wealth than they knew what to do with. All the mansions had various grand architectural stylings, but when Kim spotted one that looked similar to a Transylvanian castle, she knew this one had to be Mr. Matter's 'lair'.

And sure enough, when Mr. Matter got out of the Sloth, his attention fixed directly onto the castle-mansion with a twitchy, eager look. 'Enjoy my foosball room while you can, you lunkheads!' he crowed, standing majestically on the curb and pointing towards the manor. 'You're about to learn that trifling with me is no laughing... _Matter_!' And despite his words, he broke into a long string of laughter. Kim wouldn't have been surprised to see a lightning bolt and a thunderclap in the night sky behind him.

'Johnson - have you actually got something going on tonight?' called a friendly voice.

Mr. Matter flinched as he heard the friendly voice behind them. Kim turned and saw across the street a man in a polo shirt looking out through the bars in the gate surrounding the well-lit lawn of his own manor. 'Ah - good evening Charlie.' said Mr. Matter, his face going slightly red as he glanced at Grimm and the others.

'I was just getting in some evening putting practice when I overheard you.' said Charlie, hoisting a golf club and adjusting a cap with a puff ball on the top. 'What's your scheme tonight, eh? These don't look like your normal bodyguards.'

'Nothing for you to worry about Charlie.' said Mr. Matter, gritting his teeth and trying valiantly to sound sinister. 'There are some annoying pests in my manor and this is just the _extermination_ crew.'

'Ho hoooo, well let me know how it goes during tea tomorrow!' said Charlie, tipping his hat. Then he disappeared further into the grounds behind his gate.

'Annoying _chattel_.' Mr. Matter fumed. 'Vapid neighbors are the price I pay for the strategic location of my lair. They act like they know all about my plans, but they know _nothing_ - nothing I say!' And he laughed again.

'You've been practicing.' said Grimm. 'You'll get that 'Best Laugh' trophy from HenchCo yet.' Mr. Matter seemed pleased at Grimm's words and nodded as Grimm took out his communicator again. 'Before we go in, we'll need all the intel we can get on your security systems.' he said. 'If your henchmen are controlling the lair, then we won't be just fighting against them - we'll be fighting against the whole building.'

Mr. Matter straightened his collar with a dignified sniff. 'The secrets of my lair are many and varied.' he said mysteriously. 'Even if we stayed out here for days I could barely touch on the smallest fraction of....'

'Got it, GP!' Jade's voice chirped through his communicator. 'There's a 3rd degree laser grid at the top of the main fence....'

'And pressure-sensitive pads scattered beneath the grass on the other side....' said Wade's voice, breaking in.

'Which alert security robots on the grounds disguised as lawn ornaments...' Jade said, sounding annoyed at the interruption.

'The doors and windows are all equipped with laser tripwires....' said Wade.

'And they're linked to motion-sensitive stun gun batteries in nearly every room....' Jade said.

'Spinning tops of doom in the larger areas....' Wade said quickly.

Mr. Matter stood spluttering in disbelief as Wade and Jade continued listing off different security features. 'How did you....?' he said angrily, 'Where did...? That information is supposed to be _secret_!'

'Uh... a lot of it's on FacePage.' said Jade's voice. 'Your henchies posted some pictures in the 'my day at work' section....'

Mr. Matter gnashed his teeth, his fists trembling. 'Those... lunkheads!' he grated. 'I _told_ them not to...'

'Can you upload it all as a hazard map?' said Grimm.

'Sure.' said Wade and Jade, speaking at the same time.

Grimm knelt down, took off his pack and removed several objects that looked like metal orbs of some kind. He rolled a few towards Kim, who stooped down to catch them. 'What are these?' she said.

'Gas bombs.' said Grimm, then at Kim's pointed look he said, '_Knockout_ gas.' He laid down his communicator and a glowing green holographic projection sprang up that looked like a map. Several spots were labeled with red dots. 'The lair's vents and air intakes are marked here.' he said, pointing to each dot in turn. 'The main air conditioning unit is on the roof here. If we flood the lair and knock out the henchmen, then all we'll have to worry about are the automated defenses.'

The map highlighted a room inside the mansion floor plan and Wade's voice spoke up. 'The control room for the security system is here, deep inside the mansion.' he said. 'If you can hook the Kimmunicator into it, then I can take control and the mission should be over.'

'Sounds simple enough.' said Kim, though Monique was biting her lip. 'What if the henchmen have got gas masks?'

Mr. Matter's snorted. 'Don't worry about _them_.' he said. 'Those sun-baked hams haven't got the brains to anticipate anything past their next meal!'

Grimm nodded and touched the glowing red dots on the left side of the mansion. The dots turned into Kim Possible's logo. 'You and Unknown take the vents here, Enrique and I will cover the main AC unit and the vents on the others side...'

'My name is _not_ Unknown!!' said Monique angrily, but Grimm was holding up one of the gas bombs.

'Set the detonation timer with these dials on the top half,' he said, twiddling a pair of knobs. A small black screen showed red numbers clicking up minutes and seconds. 'To activate, twist the top a quarter turn until you hear a click. You can deactivate them with the black button on the bottom.'

'What's the red button on top for?' said Monique suspiciously.

'Impact detonation.' Grimm said. 'Just push it, give it a throw and the bomb will go off when it hits the ground. Make sure it lands a few yards away.' Monique gingerly took some of the orbs while Kim put the rest in her pack. Monique took care to make sure the red buttons were pointing straight up, even though the buttons were indented. 'It's not likely, but the henchmen might be monitoring communications.' said Grimm. Once we're inside the grounds, we keep radio silence unless it's an emergency. We'll meet in the control room as soon as we can. Once Wade or Jade control the system, we'll take down H1 and H2.'

'Don't pull a 'Gill' on them.' said Kim. 'I don't do rough stuff.'

Grimm sniffed. 'Shego might disagree with you on that.' he said, 'But I don't think we'll need any rough stuff. Still, if you think you can get to them first, go for it.'

'What about _me_?' said Mr. Matter, looking miffed. 'This is _my _lair, I should be involved more actively in it's liberation.'

Grimm had a knowing gleam in his eye. 'You've got the most important part of all.' he said. 'We'll need you to stay out here and come up with a victory speech for when we've got your henchmen in custody. We'll let you know when it's safe to come in and deliver it.'

'Ah, of course!' said Mr. Matter, rubbing his hands together. 'Yes, this will be my finest hour yet!' Then he whipped a notepad and pencil out from the pockets of his lab coat and began scribbling furiously, using the hood of the Sloth as a table.

'That should do it.' Grimm muttered under his breath to Kim. 'Enrique and I will enter from the west wall, you take the east. Set your gas bombs to go off five minutes from _now_.'

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Getting past the lasers lining the top of the fence was simple enough with her cheer squad training. Getting Monique over them safely made it a bit harder, but she managed it, motioning for a safe spot to land in the lawn past the fence.

Kim made her way across the lawn, taking cover to avoid swiveling surveillance cameras and using the map in her Kimmunicator to avoid the pressure sensors beneath the turf. She motioned Monique to follow in her wake and Monique proved surprisingly good at timing her dashes into safe zones when the cameras swiveled the other way.

The mansion loomed nearer and nearer in the darkness, with it's tall towers looming high above. It reminded her starkly of Monkey Fist's draconian manor before she remembered that it had been pulverized by the power of the Yono.

They made their way silently around half of the manor, planting gas bombs in each air vent they could find. Finally Kim's watch beeped softly. 'Five seconds!' she whispered, and she and Monique backed away quickly.

There was a series of popping _hisses_ and they saw clouds of gray vapor billowing here and there around the building. Kim brought up the internal map showing the location of the control room, then handed Monique a breathing mask. 'Put this on.' she said. 'We're going in through one of the windows.'

'Aren't the rooms full of gas now?' said Monique.

'It's the path of least resistance.' said Kim, smiling.

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Grimm signaled Enrique to wait a few seconds before he opened one of the main vents on the roof of the manor. So far, no alarms had gone off, even after the gas bombs had released their fumes into the lair.

Over a minute passed before Grimm signaled that it was all right to remove the masks. 'It should have saturated the lair completely and dissipated by now.' he said. 'If anyone is inside, they'll be down for half an hour.'

'Facil, no?' said Enrique.

'Maybe.' said Grimm. 'But don't let your guard down until we've actually got them.'

But Enrique was adjusting his outfit. 'Do you think Senorita Monique likes me in these mission clothes?' he said, but Grimm cuffed him softly on the back of his head and they both went into the ventilation duct.

Grimm kept his pace slower so that Enrique could keep up. He had to pause and motion him to silence several times as Enrique did a lot of puffing and bumping against the walls of the ducts. He knew Enrique was doing his best, and that most people wouldn't hear him, but his trained ears flinched at any sound which broke the silence.

Rueful was scouting ahead, his furry feet making no sound at all as he scampered along, peering out of various grates until he finally stopped and motioned with his paw. Grimm patted the weasel on the head and Rueful scurried up his arm and into his backpack.

A second later, the vent grating was silently removed and two figures slid down a rope line into a large room that looked like a central hub to the lair. It was more 'mansion-like' than the exterior, with polished marble floors that glinted in the dim light. There were large vases, sculptures and other finery adorning the walls, and sweeping staircases curved on either side of the room leading to the upper floors. Beside those, another set of stairs led down. A massive chandelier glittered from a dome-like recess in the ceiling, and far beneath it was an equally shimmering fountain.

'I think a room can be said to be too big when another person's house could fit inside it...' said Enrique in a hushed whisper, looking around in wonder.

Grimm eased Rueful out of his pack again and turned him loose. 'Go, little fella.' he whispered. 'The main control room is on the lower levels, to the left and the tenth door down. Stick to the shadows and keep us informed if the coast is clear.' Rueful saluted with his paw and started scampering off towards the staircases.

At that moment, every light in the room suddenly blazed and they shielded their eyes for a moment. Grimm heard a gruff, deep voice from above, coming from one of the upper staircases. 'Daaah, I know you! You're that Grimm Possible kid from a few years ago!'

Another voice sounded from the other set of upper stairs. 'Daaah, he's not _Possible_, he's _Probable_! Possible was that girl the boss was always worried about.'

'Oh yeah, I forgot.' said the first voice.

Grimm's eyes adjusted to the light and he looked up. At the top of each set of stairs was a large, hulking figure. They were both dressed in gray jumpsuits with black boots and gloves. They wore visors that looked like a reflective letter M set into their headsocks. Each of them had a small white circle emblazed on their chests, with one reading "H1" and the other reading "H2". 'Hi guys,' said Grimm. 'Been a while.'

'Daaah, what are you doing here?' said H1, taking a shock prod out of his belt.

Grimm smirked. 'Just felt like stopping by to see if Mr. Matter needed any jobs done.' he said. 'Things have been kind of slow lately and I'm trolling for business....'

'Daaah, don't play dumb!' said H2. 'Mr. Matter hired you to try and stop us!'

Grimm saw Rueful's tail whisking off to the side behind one of the banisters and hurriedly spoke up to keep the henchmen distracted. He held his arm out, keeping Enrique behind him. 'I should have known you guys would be too smart for me,' he said. 'So what are you after? If you tell me, maybe I can get Mr. Matter on board with you.'

H1 waved frantically to H2. 'Daaah, seal off the control room!' he shouted. 'I bet his pet ferret is trying to get in!'

H2 whipped a large remote control from a holster on his bet and fiddled with it. Somewhere in the distance, he heard a ringing _boom_ that sounded like heavy steel doors slamming shut.

'Daaah, don't let him try anything!' H1 yelled. 'Send out the tops!'

H2 nodded, and Grimm heard several heavy doors sliding open on either side. A quick glance showed spinning tops of doom inside hidden alcoves. He glanced up at where H2 was standing and looking down at them, the remote control firm in his grip. In a splintered second, several thoughts raced through his mind. _'They actually wired the entire lair into one remote control? And they're sending in the spinning tops of doom first? Those things take a few seconds to rev up to full speed...'_

He quickly pushed Enrique down under a decorative iron bench in front of the fountain. 'Stay down!' he said firmly, then sent his grapple line into the ceiling high above.

'I think you would say that's a 'no-brainer'.' said Enrique, scrabbling to fold himself securely under the bench.

Grimm was already high above the spinning tops by the time they spiraled onto the polished marble. Their saw blades whirled, and their heavy points left deep grooves on the floors as they rumbled around the fountain in a deadly circle, searching for a ground level target. H1 was shouting something, but Grimm landed lightly on the railing of the second staircase and started sprinting towards H2.

With a rolling leap, he landed on the hallway between the stairwells and moved towards H2, keeping his back to H1. He heard heavy footsteps racing towards him from behind, but held back on purpose. 'Hand over the remote and no one gets hurt.' he said.

'Daaah, forget it Probable!' said H2, slipping the remote into it's holster and taking out a shock prod of his own. 'We're not scared of you!'

Grimm felt a rush of air movement behind him and darted off to the side. A loud yelp from H2 let him know that the trick had worked perfectly. He pivoted and saw H2 reeling backwards from H1's shock prod.

'Daaah, watch it, that hurts!' said H2 angrily.

'Pathetic.' said Grimm loudly, going into a ready stance. 'No wonder H1 said you were a loser.'

H2 glared back and forth between Grimm and H1. 'Daaah, what?' he said, looking angry.

'That's right,' said Grimm. 'I hacked into the phone lines before we got here. H1 was bragging to one of his FacePage buddies about how he was gonna get rid of you and have the manor all to himself.'

H2 turned to H1. 'Daaah, that wasn't the plan!' he roared. 'You said we were gonna...'

'Daaah, don't fall for that old trick!' said H1, dodging a lunge from H2's shock prod. 'He's just trying to mess with us!'

H2 was swinging again. 'Daaah, how else would he have know about our FacePage....'

'Daah, it's the internet!' H1 said, blocking with his own shock prod. 'Anyone can see it!'

They were so busy fighting and arguing that they didn't see a brown, furry shape jumping up from behind. Rueful landed on top of H1's head and scurried around in a circle, chittering and squeaking loudly.

'Daaah, it's the ferret!' said H1, dropping his shock prod as he scrabbled at his head sock. 'Get him off me!'

'Daaah, I got him!' shouted H2, and he brought down the shock prod with all his strength just as Rueful leaped away.

There was a sparking flash and H1 flew backwards, looking groggy even through his visor. 'Daaaaaahhhhhhhh.......!' he said in a long, drawn out wail, and then he fell to the red carpeted floor with a crash.

'Daaah, sorry H1!' said H2, looking dismayed. But an instant later he flinched as he felt Grimm's hand pulling hard on the holster of his belt.

Grimm winced. The holster had a binding clip on it that kept it closed, and he would need to position himself differently to get it open, but H2 was already aware of the ruse. Grimm spun aside as the shock prod whooshed by him, leaving a buzzing trail of sparks.

H2's free hand closed over the holster. 'Daaah, nice try Probable!' he said triumphantly. 'But there's no way you're getting this from me...!' A second later he gasped as Grimm snaked around in front of him and hit the button on his belt buckle, unclasping it. The belt, holster and all, whipped from around his waist as Grimm darted back out of reach. 'Hey - come back here with that!' he yelled, chasing after him as Grimm slid down the rail.

Grimm looked down, hearing a shout. The bench where Enrique was hiding had nearly disintegrated. Two Spinning Tops of Doom were on either side of the bench, their heavy bulk slowly grinding it into filings. 'Senor Grimm!' Enrique called out.

Grimm sent out his grapple line again and swept down just as Enrique tried to make a dash for it to escape the tops. Two more were still circling around the fountain, but Grimm pulled Enrique up above the reach of the tops. He couldn't hold the grapple line, and Enrique and H2's belt though. He tried to hold the belt between his teeth, but it slipped out and disappeared below him.

'When I let go, start running!' Grimm shouted, and Enrique nodded, looking a bit shaken. He let go of both Enrique and the grapple line, and both of them landed directly on top of one of the Spinning Tops of Doom. Like joggers on a treadmill, they kept running, keeping their balance as the top careened around the room.

'I like these things better when they're on my side.' Grimm said, while Enrique nodded, puffing as he tried to match his pace with the spinning of the top. The other tops seemed to be registering Grimm as a target, and they closed in on their top, blades whirling. _'Jump_!' Grimm shouted.

They both leaped clear just as all four tops collided with a deafening boom. Grimm felt the shockwave of the impact move through him as they both tumbled to the floor. Enrique's landing was less graceful as he broke his fall with his backside.

'Ow...' he said, getting to his feet with a slight limp. 'Why do I come on these missions? I'm a lover, not a fighter.'

Grimm was looking around for the belt, but grimaced as he saw H2 picking it up and fishing out the remote.

'Daaah, time for the big guns!' he said, punching several buttons.

'The tops were not big?' said Enrique.

Grimm pushed Enrique down as stun gun batteries suddenly swiveled out from panels in the wall high above. He prepared for a rolling leap to make another try for the remote.

'Daah, no more tricks Probable - or your friend gets it!' said H2, twiddling a knob on the remote. Red lights from targeting lasers suddenly dotted Enrique, who stood up, fidgeting as he tried to brush them off.

Grimm scowled. He could avoid the guns easily, since he knew their specs and their capabilities. But there was no way Enrique could escape with H2 making sure the guns tracked him. He slowly put up his hands in surrender.

'And call out your ferret! I don't want anymore funny stuff.'

Grimm whistled and Rueful came scurrying out from behind a sculpture. H2 scooped him up, put him into one of several large, decorative vases, then put a heavy chunk of debris from the ruined tops onto it. H1 was stumbling groggily down the stairs, shaking his head.

H2 nodded, then turned to face Grimm and Enrique. 'Daaah, now we just have to figure out what to do with _you_ two...'

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Monique followed Kim down one of the many hallways. Kim was following Rufus while keeping an eye on her Kimmunicator. Using her laser lipstick, she had made short work of one of the decorative windows, cutting high enough so they could step through and not break the laser tripwire. From there, they had made it into the mansion easily enough, and found their way to the lower halls. Monique paused as Kim stopped.

'This is where the control room is suppose to be.' said Kim. But they were looking at a blast door, very solid and strong.

'_That_ wasn't listed on FacePage.' said Monique.

'Wade, can you open the blast door from outside?'

'Sorry Kim - the only access now is through the control room.'

'Then we'll need another way in.' Kim said.

'There's a vent a few feet down that hall.' Wade said. 'It looks like it leads right into the control room.'

'That's convenient.' said Monique, looking down the hall and seeing the vent, in the wall just above the baseboard.

'Yeah.' said Kim, and she suddenly reached out to stop Monique, who was about ready to pry the grate off. 'Hold it!' she said, 'Wade, I'm scanning the vent - tell me if there's anything unusual.'

The scanner beam hummed, and there was a pause. 'Woah,' said Wade. 'The grate's been wired, Kim. If the panel breaks contact with the ductwork it's set to trip a silent alarm. And it looks like _all_ the vents are rigged the same way. If one of the grates is tripped, the security system can tell which one is compromised.'

Monique flinched as a loud rumbling seemed to echo through the halls. 'I think someone tried the vents.' she said.

Kim was punching at her Kimmunicator. 'Probable!' she shouted. 'Come in! _Probable_!' But there was no answer.

Jade's voice came through the speakers. 'They're fighting the henchies on the main floor!' she said.

'H1 and H2 were smarter than their boss thought.' Kim muttered. 'Wade - keep trying to get the blast door open. Looks like we have pull our 'stealthy mercenary' out of the frying pan.'

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Grimm and Enrique were tied back to back, their wrists bound tight with cords. H1 and H2 were keeping an eye on them from near the fountain, talking quietly back and forth. 'Sorry, Senor Grimm.' said Enrique. 'If it hadn't been for me, you could have beaten them.'

Grimm laughed softly. 'Wow.' he said. 'For a second there, you almost sounded like Rhonda.' He glanced over at the vase where Rueful was imprisoned. He could see his paw poking out through a small gap, but he was unable to move the chunk of metal which covered the rim.

'Still - to be captured like this...' said Enrique. 'I fear I've ended your impressive winning streak.'

'Still not a loss for me.' Grimm said with a smirk. 'I was caught by a villain's henchman - not a hero - so this doesn't count.' Then he heard a whisper from behind him.

'Not from where I'm standing.'

Grimm's eyes twitched briefly to the side, then he snapped them back towards the henchmen. 'Took you long enough.' he whispered. He knew from the maps that Kim must be hiding around the bend leading into the lower stairwell, about two feet away from where he and Enrique were tied.

'Still think I should have stayed home under the bed?' Kim said.

'So!' said Grimm, with a loud voice. 'You wired the entire mansion's security system into that remote you're holding. Very clever!'

Kim nodded and darted back deeper into the stairwell, motioning Monique backwards as H1 and H2 stared at Grimm.

'Daaah, yeah.' said H2. 'You thought you could outsmart us, but you were wrong! We knew someone might try to come in through the vents, so we made sure if it happened, we'd know exactly where to be.'

'But if those auto-tracking stun gun batteries weren't on,' Grimm nearly shouted, 'then anyone could come along and clobber you.' Kim glanced out again and saw the remote in H2's belt holster, and she also saw the gun batteries lining the walls far above.

'But it looks like they have trouble with targets smaller than a human.' Grimm yelled. 'I bet something like a naked mole rat could get past them without activating them!'

'Daaah, shut up!' said H1, stepping forward. 'We're not through plannin' yet! If Mr. Matter sent you after us, then we want to come up with a way to fix you so he knows that _we_ were the ones that beat you!'

'Sure thing.' said Grimm. 'I was just noting how brilliant you guys are.' H1 and H2 glared and moved further away to resume their talking. Grimm's hip pouch was facing away from the henchmen and with his tied hand, he motioned to the communicator in his belt.

Kim nodded and sent out Rufus, who crawled along and tapped a button on the panel. She saw Grimm's lips moving, but couldn't hear him. She turned on her own Kimmunicator and heard his voice speaking in a soft whisper.

'That remote is the only way to get control back now.' Grimm said, 'The main control room's sealed off.'

'I know.' Kim whispered back.

Grimm nodded. 'I've got a bladed lockpick in my glove, and I can get out of these cords in a second or two, but it won't do any good with those guns activated. And if anyone besides H1 or H2 moves out there, they'll be targeted.'

'I don't know if Rufus can get the remote all by himself.' Kim said. 'What we need is some kind of distraction.'

'The noise quieted down!' said a sudden voice from across the room. 'Is it safe to come in? Is the lair mine again?'

H1 and H2 turned and stared as Mr. Matter strode into the room, looking around at the wreckage of the spinning tops. He paused suddenly as dozens of targeting laser dots lit him up like a Christmas tree in a lab coat. 'Ah...' he said sheepishly, 'That would be _no_ then...'

Kim saw all the guns had targeted Mr. Matter and sped forward, making a bee-line for the henchmen. She vaulted over them and landed between them, going into a ready stance while they turned to face the new interloper.

'Daaah, who are you?' said H2, staring. 'You're not Grimm!'

'No,' said Kim, 'I'm _perky_.' She maintained a low stance, waiting, and saw several of the targeting laser dots swiveling from Mr. Matter to aim at her, with some of them lighting on the henchmen who stood between her and the gun batteries.

'Daah, don't shoot!' said H1 frantically, but H2 was already punching several buttons on the remote, looking nervous. Mr. Matter squeaked and dived behind the fountain as some of the guns opened fire.

The henchmen scattered as Kim cartwheeled to the side, several stun blasts popping loudly where they had been standing. H2 mashed his hand on the remote and the guns paused in their firing.

Kim leaped forward with a whirling kick that landed firmly in H2's chest. H2 stumbled backwards, flailing to keep his balance, and dropped the remote control. H2 stooped to seize it, but Monique darted from the side and flicked out with her foot, sending it spinning across the polished floor.

'Oops.' she said, smirking.

H1 grunted and dived for the remote, but from off to the side there came a pink blur as Rufus scuttled in out of nowhere, hoisted the remote onto his back and scampered off with H1 in pursuit. 'Daaah, come back here you freaky little rat!' he shouted, but he tripped and fell as Grimm rolled suddenly into his legs.

Kim saw the cut cords on the floor where Grimm and Enrique had been, then saw him ascending on his grapple line.

'I'll handle the guns!' he shouted. 'You take the henchmen!'

Kim nodded and intercepted H1, who had recovered and was closing in on Rufus. Rufus had backed into a corner of the room and his black eyes gleamed as H1 approached. Kim was too late to stop the ensuing tackle, but was relieved to see Rufus rolling up and across the floor as if he had squirted between H1's fingers. But he was no longer carrying the remote.

Grimm acted as if he were back in the training yard. Using the claw of his grapple line as an anchor, he swung and ran along the circumference of the room, bracing his feet against the walls and using his momentum to carry himself forward. Stun blasts burst around him, but several of the guns exploded as they were hit by the guns across the room as Grimm circled through their midst. The second to last gun battery sparked and whined as it was struck by a blast, and then there was only one left.

Another swinging arc and Grimm landed on top of the last gun battery, fishing a sapper unit out of his belt. There was an electrical buzz as he slapped it in place, and the gun sputtered, lowered and deactivated. Enrique had turned Rueful loose and both teams closed in on the henchmen. H1 and H2 were backing towards one of the staircases leading down to the control room.

'Give it up, fellas.' said Grimm, dropping back to the ground. 'All the defense systems in this room are wrecked.'

'Daaah, says _who_?' said H1, and he pushed a large red button on the remote.

Two sections of the marble walls slid open, revealing dark alcoves that were nearly fifteen feet high. A red light lit up in each alcove, and with thumping footsteps that shook the floor, two robots lumbered out.

Mr. Matter squealed from his place behind the fountain. 'You ordered Doom Bots and you didn't _tell_ me?'

'Daaah, surprise boss!' said H2. Missile pods, gun emplacements and other weaponry snapped out of compartments all along the arms, shoulders and chests of the Doom Bots with a rapid series of clicks.

'Oh snap...' said Monique.

Enrique was backing up. 'Senor Grimm - I did not sign on to fight 'Doom Bots!'

Grimm squared his shoulders as the Doom Bots drew closer. 'Take out the henchmen.' he said to Kim. 'I'll distract these guys.'

'You can't take these things by yourself.' Kim said.

'No, I can't.' Grimm said. 'But I can give you the shot you need to finish the mission. I'm not as good at frontal attacks. Just _hurry_.' And without waiting, Grimm shot forward, running between the Doom Bots and winding his grapple line around the legs of the first one.

Kim didn't wait to see what happened next, she weaved around both of the robots as they focused on Grimm. She caught up with the henchmen quickly.

H1 and H2 laughed. 'Daah, a scrawny little girl like you can't beat _us_!' H1 snorted.

'That was _so_ unenlightened.' said Kim. 'I think you both need a chill pill!' And with a smooth motion, she swept the last gas bomb out of her pack, hit the red button and threw. She covered her mouth as it went off, a cloud of gray mist billowing out.

Kim aimed carefully and fired her grappling line towards the upper balcony. The hook and cable lashed around a large marble sculpture that was set next to the rail. With a hurried throw, she hooked more of the cable across one of the outcroppings of the chandelier high above.

The henchmen emerged from the gas cloud wearing masks from their own belts. 'Daah, nice try red, but you're not smart enough for us either!' said H2.

Kim smirked and pulled hard on the cable, activating the retraction winch at the same time. The sculpture was pulled over the rail and swung down, arching straight towards the henchmen. H1 and H2 turned and stared at it's swift approach as if hypnotized, and both their voices sounded out at the same time. 'Uh oh!'

Monique averted her eyes for an instant and heard a loud crash followed by two yelping shouts. When she looked back, she saw both henchmen sprawled on the floor, groaning feebly, with the sculpture on top of them pinning them down.

Kim knelt down and pried the remote out of H2's limp hand. 'And _that's_ how the good girls kick it!' she said.

Grimm was pinned down by a huge metal hand, struggling to push it up. Kim was tempted to drink in the sight a little longer, but she hit a button marked _FAILSAFE_ on the remote, and the Doom Bots both stopped, whirring down to motionlessness.

'About time.' he grimaced, managing to pry himself loose.

'You're _welcome_.' said Kim sarcastically.

Mr. Matter stood up again, dusting himself off and straightening his goggles. 'Ha HA!' he crowed, rushing up to his henchmen and pointing down at them. 'It looks like all efforts at rebellion just didn't _matter_!'

'They're out cold.' said Grimm.

'Ah, they can still hear things.' said Mr. Matter, waving his hand.

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Once they had scanned the remote, Wade and Jade had quickly been able to restore control of the mansion and unlock the main control room. Kim wasn't quite sure how she felt about this mission, but no one had been hurt, and even Rufus was looking cheerful as Grimm and Enrique hauled the sculpture off of the henchmen and tied them up.

H1 and H2 were set one of the benches next to the fountain, and it didn't take long for them to come to. Mr. Matter stood in front of them with his eyes flashing. He took out his notepad, looked at it, then grimaced and put it back in his lab coat. 'I had a speech all prepared for when I caught you two lunkheads, but this whole business has roiled me so much that I'm too mad to read it! Did you fools really think you could get away with double-crossing the mighty Mr. Matter?'

The henchmen looked down, seeming like two overgrown children with their hands caught in the cookie jar. 'Daaah, no.' they both said quietly.

Mr. Matter puffed in his anger. 'So that's all you have to say for yourselves, eh? Well I'll be going through the lair very carefully to take stock of all my stuff! And everything that I find damaged or missing is coming out of _your_ salaries - _double!_'

'Daaah, we didn't touch any of your stuff, boss.' said H1, sounding almost indignant. 'We wouldn't rip you off.'

Mr. Matter looked dumbfounded. 'But... if you didn't want any of my stuff, then why did you take over my lair?' he shouted.

H1 and H2 dug their toes sheepishly at the floor. 'Daaah, we just wanted to prove we were good henchmen.' said H1.

Mr. Matter sputtered incoherently for a few seconds. 'By... throwing me out?' he said at last.

'Daaah, we thought if we could show you that we could _outsmart _you then you'd respect us.' said H2.

'Daaah, yeah boss - you don't treat us all that good.' said H1. 'How come you're always calling us idiots all the time?'

'Well for starters, you keep beginning every sentence by saying _Daaaah_!' Mr. Matter said. 'That doesn't exactly scream 'super genius!'

'Daaa...' H2 started, then he seemed to catch himself. 'We just want a little respect, boss.' he said. 'We like working for you, but just because we're the muscle of your operation doesn't mean we don't have feelings.'

'You're my _hired goons_, you're not supposed to have feelings!' Mr. Matter said.

'Aw come on, boss.' said H1 with a hangdog expression. 'Even you gotta admit, we did pretty good planning our little takeover. We were careful about the whole thing - none of the stuff was rigged to actually hurt anybody.'

Grimm raised and eyebrow and walked over to one of the wrecked tops. He ran his finger along the wicked looking blades that jutted out, and to his surprise he saw they were made of rubber. And it was true the Doom Bot could have mashed him flat, but it didn't.

Mr. Matter stood with his arms folded, looking down at them, and then his expression seemed to soften a bit. 'You really mean to say you did all this just to... _impress_ me?'

'Yeah.' said H2. 'We always made a good team, boss. We thought you'd be proud if you knew we were tough _and_ smart.'

Mr. Matter's eyes gleamed. 'You know something? You're right!' he said. 'For the initiative and daring that you lunkhe.... you _men_ have shown in this caper, I'm promoting both of you to co-chiefs of security!'

'Daaah, thanks boss!' said H1, and both he and H2 seemed delighted.

'Very well!' said Mr. Matter, and it seemed to Kim that he had forgotten the rest of them were even there. He untied H1 and H2 and motioned them to stand up, gesturing dramatically towards the stairs. 'Let us repair to my labs so that I can continue with my plans for global domination! With the lair's security in your hands, I am confident that no meddlesome heroes will be able to interfere!'

'Daaah, you can count on us, boss!' said H2.

Kim watched them as they trooped back towards the stairwell, disappearing out of view. '_This_ is what mercenary work is like?' she said, turning to Grimm and shaking her head. 'Nothing's changed! The henchmen were in charge of the mansion's security _before_ all this happened - that promotion was totally meaningless!'

'I don't think so.' said Grimm, looking almost warmly towards where the trio had left. 'You saw them - they're happy now. Mr. Matter has his lair back, and his loyal minions. H1 and H2 got the respect they wanted, and nobody got hurt. Looks like everybody wins.'

'Un trabajo bien hecho!' said Enrique, slapping Grimm's hand in a high-five.

'So... why are we still milling around here?' said Monique. 'It's getting late, and there's still school tomorrow.'

'One last thing.' said Grimm. 'Mr. Matter gets carried away sometimes, but he doesn't _forget_.'

And at that exact moment, Mr. Matter came puffing back up the stairs. 'I almost forgot!' he said. 'I owe you - for another successful mission! Let me just write you a check....'

But Grimm shook his head. 'I'd love to take credit.' he said, looking suspiciously humble. 'But the fact is it was _Kim_ who took down the henchmen and got your lair back. Make it out to Kim Possible.'

Mr. Matter looked warily at Kim, then shrugged his shoulders. 'Well, I still say it feels odd giving payment to a _hero_.' he said. 'But fair is fair - here you are my dear - the same amount I gave to Mr. Probable the last time he saved my house.' He tore a check loose from his checkbook and handed it to Kim.

Kim was already shaking her head. 'I don't work... for....' she said, looking down. And her mouth fell open in amazement.

'Wah.... _Wow...._' said Monique softly. 'You'd think something with that many zeroes would be worth _less_....'

'I... can't accept this.' said Kim.

'Nonsense!' said Mr. Matter, turning back and hopping back towards the stairs. 'The laborer is worthy of his... or _her_... hire! I asked you people to get my lair back and that's just what you've done! It's a fair price for a successful job and worth every penny!' Then he was gone again, leaving Kim with a set of very confused thoughts.

As they left the manor, Grimm closed the door behind them and glanced over Kim's shoulder at the check. 'Yep, that's pretty much what I got.' he said. Then as if he were speaking to himself, he said softly, 'That could buy a lot of crime-fighting gear. Or, it could be used to help someone in need. Yeah... a person could do a lot of _good_ with that money...'

Kim turned to glare at him, but he was already walking past her down the marble driveway towards the gates leading out of the mansion.

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Back in Rhonda's room at the Fatigable's house, Kim kept taking out the check and looking at it. She knew she could never accept it. But she heard the sounds of Monique getting ready for bed in the nearby guest room, and her resolve to tear up the check and throw it away wavered.

She could call in any one of a number of favors from people who owed her - at government levels, state and local. Surely they would pitch in and help Monique's family out. But she knew Monique would never accept that, and would probably be embarrassed since any help that came through those sources would certainly carry a high level of media attention. Monique might even be resentful and angry at Kim - parading around her best friend's problems in front of the whole world.

She looked again at the check, and the large number of zeroes that trailed across it. She didn't need or want the money herself - but it would help Monique so much... It was enough to pay off their house completely, and would free her whole family from a tremendous burden.

She almost crumpled the check, but couldn't bring herself to do it. _'This is villain money!'_ she thought angrily. _'This should be a no-brainer! So why is this so hard?'_ She kept picturing Mr. Matter and his two henchmen in her mind. As 'villains' went, they seemed almost harmless. Mr. Matter's fortune, like Senor Senior Senior, was entirely his own and not gained by theft. And like Senor Sr., Mr. Matter seemed more concerned about having people _think_ he was a villain as opposed to actually being one.

_'And we did earn it by finishing a harmless task for him...'_ Kim heard herself thinking. _'He just wanted his lair back - how is that any different than the first job that I took so long ago?'_ And like a seductive whisper, Grimm's casual off-handed remark went through her mind again.

'..._a person could do a lot of good with that money...'_

Her own thoughts kicked in, and she was surprised to her how similar it sounded to Grimm.

_'I could help Monique out so much... and no one would ever have to know...'_

She couldn't make up her mind, no matter how hard she tried. Just a couple rips, and the matter would be ended, but for all her strength, she somehow couldn't muster enough to tear up a small rectangle of paper. At last, she folded it and put it into one of the pockets of her suitcase. She would leave it alone for the moment. Unendorsed, it had no value at all and she could put it out of her mind. She had other things to think about, and this matter was too big to decide quickly after a long day. Instead, she looked over a student map of Riddleton High, trying to anticipate what riddles might need solving tomorrow...

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Maze looked through the vast cavern of their lair. The addition of more golems seemed to have paid off. The Ultra Atmospheric Jammer was definitely taking shape, rising higher towards the cavern roof. It still seemed gutted though, even to his untrained eye, with large gaps here and there in it's structure and wires and components spilling out like entrails from a wounded animal.

At the moment though, there seemed to be a lull in the work. The golems assigned to help Drakken with the construction were standing around the machine doing nothing, while Drakken looked up at the Jammer with scowling eyes.

Monkey Fist emerged from the inner chambers of the lair and paused, looking at Drakken, then at the Jammer and back again. 'Is there a problem?' he said dryly.

Drakken looked irritated by the question. 'Of _course_ there is!' he said. 'I told you at the outset that we would need more materials than what you had gathered here! I suppose you didn't believe me, but here's the proof!' He gestured at the incomplete Jammer, then back at the storage area, which was now empty except for a few broken crates and bare pallets.

'How close are we to completion?' said Monkey Fist.

'Oh, it's well past the half-way point.' said Drakken dismissively. 'But we're not getting any further without more circuitry, wiring and metals - plus there are several specialized components that can't be made here...'

'Do you know where we might obtain these materials?' said Monkey Fist, a smirk of anticipation crossing his lips.

'Well _d'oy_!' said Drakken. 'The R&D facilities in Go City! But of course you won't _let_ me go get them, and many of these items are delicate so I don't want to send your piledriver patrol to get them either...'

Monkey Fist turned from Drakken, motioning him to silence. 'What do you say, _Sskipoyiwa_?' he said. 'We've been cooped up here such a long time that I think a day of _shopping_ might be good for all of us.'

Maze's fingers twitched around his staff, and he nodded slowly.

_Coming Soon:_

_Chapter 22_

_What has 22 Chapters, 1 Prophet and a whole lot of visions?_

_Author: Back to the main plot we go at last! Now that both Kim and Grimm have walked a few miles in each others' moccasins we can return to Monkey Fist, to Maze and their grand scheme. What have they been cooking up while Kim has been in hiding in Riddleton? Now that Ron and Rhonda are figuring out ways to contact their BF/GFs, what will come of that? And... why was there no 'Senior Prom' episode for the Kim Possible TV series? All those answers and more will be answered by the end of the story, so stay tuned for Chapter 22!_

_Special thanks goes again to fanfiction author DarkWarrior for allowing me to use the characters he made up in "Team Probable: The First Odd Job". Namely, Mr. Matter and his two henchmen. They were funny in his story, and it was fun writing my own slant on them for the Grimm/Kim mercenary mission._


	23. Ch 22: Revelations

A Friend In Darkness

All Things Probable 3

A Kim Possible Fanfiction

by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and its affiliates, etc. etc.

Chapter 22  
Revelations

_Or: To See Or Not To See_

_**Part I: Training wreck**_

The next day at Riddleton High was a bit more comfortable than the first. The marquee read, '_This verb is also a room in your house that you should be using.'_ Kim smiled, shaking her head as she and Monique entered for the next day of classes.

The classes themselves were also a little less baffling. They had at least learned to stay out of Ms. Darken's way. Grimm seemed somehow distracted, and didn't say much, which suited Kim just fine. Once near his locker though, she caught him humming a tune.

_'We are sowing, daily sowing, countless seeds of good and ill...'_

But beyond that he was almost unobtrusive, right up to the end of classes. The situation at cheer practice had now totally reversed. Before, the girls had been distracted in their exercises by the gymnastics team. Now the gymnastics team seemed to be totally distracted by the cheer squad. A spare uniform had been rustled up for Kim, which fit her surprisingly well. The other girls picked up on Kim's moves and followed her lead awkwardly at first, as if they weren't used to having anyone really take charge of things. But they soon got used to it and by the end of practice, they were performing fairly well. Rufus and Monique watched from the sidelines, with Rufus making periodic whistles and squealing shouts.

There was an occasional thud from the other side of the gym as sometimes a member of the gymnastics team, trying to watch the girls and do their own routines at the same time, would lose their balance and sprawl into the mats. Even Donnie seemed distracted, though his eye strayed more to Kim than any of the others. Only Grimm seemed immune, going through his own exercises with a focused, almost stony look on his face, as if he didn't notice anything else going on around him.

'Looking good guys,' said Donnie, facing the gymnastics squad, but with his head turned towards the cheerleaders. 'Looking _very_ good...'

Grimm shook his head and rolled his eyes. 'Pathetic....' he muttered.

Enrique was also sitting by the sidelines, his eyes glazed over as he watched the cheer squad. Rueful scurried around him, tugging at his jacket, but totally failing to get his attention. 'Si....' he sighed. 'Muy pathetico....'

At least Kim called a halt. 'That's _much _better, guys.' she said. 'Once we've got these down we'll move on to some of the harder stuff.'

There was a chorus of moans. 'Do we have to quit now?' said Rachel. 'This is the first time we've had _fun_ at practice...'

'You can practice the basics more at home.' Kim said, shaking her head. 'Try and have them totally down for tomorrow and we'll see where it goes from there.'

As they filed towards the girls shower room, Enrique called out to Grimm, who was re-chalking his hands. 'Are we... not going to get ready to leave as well?' he said. 'We should not let Senorita Possible get too far ahead of us.'

'Too late for _that_.' Grimm said, scowling. 'Thanks to her and the rest of the squad, we're going to have to stay late. With our great leader and everyone else mooning over the cheerleaders, _our_ practice hasn't even started yet. Pathetic.'

Enrique's eyes fell on Monique, who was getting ready to leave, with Rufus perched on her shoulder. 'Que lastima...' he sighed.

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Wade's voice sounded quietly, almost furtively out of the speaker in Kim's Kimmunicator. 'Are you sure about this?' he asked.

'Totally.' said Kim with eagerness. She held the Kimmunicator up to the security pad which locked the gated entrance to the training yard, and activated the scanner. While it hummed, Kim looked around, hearing a rustle in the trees, but it was only a bird taking flight. The thick bushes and trees that surrounded the training yard like a green wall seemed otherwise deserted.

'This security pad is pretty heavily encrypted,' said Wade. 'There's dozens of subroutines and... OK I'm in!'

With a soft beep, the red light beneath the numbered keypad turned green and there was a click. Kim quickly entered and shut the gate behind her. The control pad which controlled the workout settings was whirring up from an enclosure in the ground as she walked in. Grimm was still at gym practice, so Kim had left Monique with Rufus to look after Indy as soon as they got back to Rhonda's place. Then she had sneaked over to the wooded area behind Grimm's house. She wasn't sure if it was pride or curiosity that was driving her, but she wanted a crack at the training yard.

'I've disengaged Grimm's voice control so you can enter the level manually.' said Wade. 'You gonna start low for your first try?'

Kim sniffed. 'I think I can handle the high levels.' she said, squaring her shoulders.

'I better close the channel before Jade turns up again. Good luck.' said Wade, and the Kimmunicator blipped off.

Kim looked over the control pad, which seemed to be a standard 10-key with a pair of up/down buttons, an enter button, and a red button marked ABORT. The red LED on top showed a blinking red cursor. Kim hit '99' and then Enter. A voice sounded from the loudspeaker mounted on the eaves of the changing room.

_'The maximum level is ten.'_

Kim shrugged, then re-entered '10'. She hurried to the red X where she had seen Grimm start his run, and went into a ready stance. The tennis ball guns zoomed up all around her from their enclosures, and Lynn (or Mim's) voice echoed from the loudspeaker.

_'You're going down, bro!'_

With hisses of compressed air, tennis ball began launching at Kim from every side. She twisted, flexed and cart wheeled, feeling them whizzing past her with rushes of air. She heard the loudspeaker again after one of her longer flips.

_'Stay within the circle - minus five points.'_

She winced and rolled back inside the circle, which was in a ten foot radius around the red X. She could see the timer mounted further away, still counting down. It wasn't practice like she'd ever experienced. Her cheerleader moves proved effective, but she was still getting several near misses. She tried shifting through several different kung-fu styles, trying to find out which was best for dodging and blocking. And she found herself using the Monkey Kung-Fu techniques she'd practiced while learning fifteen other forms of kung-fu.

She scooped up tennis balls to hit the flashing targets mounted here and there. It proved harder than she thought, but even with the constant dodging, she managed to hit several of them.

A buzzer sounded and she dashed into the second enclosure, where she knew the object was to get past the cannons and reach an upper platform. In this area, the cannons were tracking her instead of firing randomly within the circle in the first area. This felt more familiar to her, and she used a number of her cheer moves to swing and leap her way through the obstacle course, avoiding shots until she was near the platform.

It looked much higher from inside the arena than it had from outside, and she knew a standing leap wouldn't be enough. She doubled back, narrowly being missed by two tennis balls, and made a leap for one of the rings which were swinging by ropes.

After a few moments of dodging and swinging between rings and ropes, she aimed her leap and rolled through mid-air, landing firmly on the upper platform. Sweat was running down her face and her breathing was coming in gasps, but she felt more energized than she had in a long time.

As she took her place in the smaller ring, she watched almost eagerly for the attacking volley of tennis balls. She smiled as she blocked and weaved, knocking some tennis balls aside with her hands, and side-stepping others. A thrill of exhilaration swept over her. _'This isn't so hard,'_ she thought. _'I should ask Wade to set up a tougher course back at home...'_

_Thwapp!_

There was a stinging pain on her back right shoulder. A grating buzzer sounded and all the cannons stopped firing, lowering and retracting into their enclosures. The loudspeaker blared out with Lynn and Mim's taunting voices.

'_Gimme an L, Gimme an O, Gimme an S-E-R! That spells loser! Loser! Loooooooooo-serrrrrrrr!!'_

And the timer counters mounted around the training yard were now flashing the word _loser_ in red letters from several angles. Kim rubbed her shoulder where the tennis ball had struck, feeling a lingering, burning pain which she knew was going to translate into a spectacular welt. The tennis balls were all rolling down their networks of collecting gutters, disappearing back underground where she knew some of Jade's widgets must be automatically re-stocking them for another run, like a bowling alley setting up pins.

She winced and leaped back down, using one of the swinging rings to arrest her fall. Looking back at the upper platform, she felt oddly frustrated. She hadn't even gotten to the point in the exercise where the cannons went into overdrive. She didn't want to make excuses for herself, but the fact was that the exercise was all about deflecting, blocking and dodging. There wasn't any equipment set up for attacking, at least not that she knew of.

In her own experiences, she always focused on putting the villain down as quickly as she could. Dodging and blocks were part of that, but it was just to let her get close enough to put the bad guys down for the count.

As she reached the starting point, she saw two girls stamping down the thick grassy path that led to the training yard. Lynn and Mim were looking around eagerly, but when they saw Kim their faces fell in confusion. 'So it was _you_ going through the training yard?' said Lynn.

Kim nodded. 'How did you know someone was here?' she said.

'We set it up so that if Grimm ever got hit, an alarm sounds in our room.' said Mim. 'This is the first time it's ever gone off.'

'Aw _man_...' said Lynn, looking disappointed. 'Grimm really _is_ better than her!'

'Don't be stupid!' said Mim. 'Kim just started off with the max level, that's all!'

'Start off on level six or something and work your way up.' said Lynn. 'Even Grimm only went to level ten once...'

Kim sighed as the twisters rustled their way back up the path towards the house.

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Grimm was sitting cross-legged in the wooded area behind Rhonda's house with Rueful nosing around in the undergrowth. He felt embarrassed, sneaking into the backyard of his girlfriend's house, but he didn't want Kim or Monique to know he was there. He hadn't given up trying to contact Rhonda, or at least have them contact him in some way as they had with Monique. But as the minutes stretched out to an hour with no results, he felt more and more frustrated.

He tried to concentrate, to focus his mind on something peaceful. But peace and serenity always seemed harder to achieve when he was _trying_ to achieve it.

_'Omahkkiaayowa...'_ he chanted in a low voice. '_Omahkkiaayowa..._'

As more time passed without anything happening, he let part of his mind drift, wondering if Possible had cashed Mr. Matter's check...

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_Ron and Rhonda watched as the vision of Grimm ghosted in and out before their eyes. The grove itself, and Rueful, remained in their sight._

_'Why's he fading like that?' said Rhonda. 'We'll never be able to get his attention like this.'_

_'Maybe he forgot to get that HDTV converter box.' Ron said._

_Rhonda doubled over in a sudden giggle. And based on nothing more than the way she was laughing, Ron knew what was about to happen. As she ran out of air to laugh with, she took in one ragged gasp that sounded like a grating snore. At once, her hands flew to her mouth, covering it up._

_Ron smiled. 'Hey, you snort! That's so cute!'_

_A look of genuine panic was on Rhonda's face. 'Don't tell Grimm - please?' she said, and there was a pleading tone in her voice so desperate that Ron paused._

_'Uh... OK.' he said. 'But... why not? If you two really stay together he's gonna find out eventually.'_

_Rhonda's face fell. 'I don't know if you've noticed this,' she said, 'But being a mercenary working for super-villains doesn't leave you with much to laugh about.'_

_Ron frowned. 'Well, even so, he wouldn't care if his GF has the laughy-snort, would he?'_

_Rhonda looked down, even though there was nothing to look down at. 'I don't know.' she said, and her voice was low and sad. 'Ever since we started shipping it's felt like I've got a bulls-eye on the back of my head. Like everyone at school is looking at us and saying 'What's a cool guy like him doing hanging out with a loser like her?' Do you have any idea what that's like?'_

_Ron saw a list of unspoken rules flashing before his eyes, comprising the protocol of 'the food chain'. He remembered the constant suggestions from people who didn't even know Kim that she should be 'trading up' - sometimes given to her when Ron was right there watching. He heard in his mind every snide expression of disbelief, from super-villains down to Bonnie, when they heard the words 'Kim Possible is dating Ron Stoppable'. And he suddenly realized, no one ever said 'Ron Stoppable is dating Kim Possible.' As if even on a subconscious level, he had already been ranked and pigeonholed as a subordinate entity, below Kim Possible's station._

_'Yeah.' he said at last. 'I hear you.'_

_'That's why I keep little stuff like this from him, even the laughy-snort.' she said. 'I have to be as perfect as I can. I keep expecting someday that he'll wake up and realize that almost every girl in school has an eye on him. That it's only a matter of time before he realizes it and starts looking around and... and comparing.'_

_She moved over to the spot where Grimm's visage faded in and out of sight. 'If only he knew how much I miss him...' she sighed._

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Grimm looked blankly at the dream catcher hanging from one of the tree branches in front of him. He tried to remember Rhonda's face, her voice, the way her hair looked. 'If only you knew how much I miss you...' he said in a whisper.

_And Rhonda saw Grimm clearly. His form was less shadowy and more solid to her eye. Rueful stopped exploring and came charging over, squealing excitedly. 'Hey Rueful!' she said. 'Long time no see!' Rueful tried to climb onto her arm, but fell through it and landed comically in a pile of leaves._

_'Think he can get your BF's attention?' said Ron._

_'Worth a try...' said Rhonda._

Rueful started scurrying around in a tight circle as if he were chasing his tail. He chittered loudly, standing on his hind legs and waving at the air in front of him. Grimm stared. The clearing seemed even quieter than before somehow, despite Rueful's actions.

'She's _here_ isn't she?' Grimm said, staring at Rueful. The weasel nodded, thumping one foot on the ground.

Grimm stared around wildly, as if trying to will himself to see. 'Come on baby...' he said. 'If you're trying to tell me something, help me to listen!'

_Rhonda felt a tug of sadness, hearing his voice speaking as if in a distant echo. Tell him something? She already knew what she wanted to say, but it seemed impossible that he would hear it. She got right up to Grimm's ear. 'I miss you.' she said._

_And to her surprise, Grimm jolted, his hand shooting up and clapping over the ear she had spoken into. His eyes were wide and his mouth was open in shock. He stayed that way for almost a minute, and Rhonda saw a bead of moisture pooling at the edge of his eye._

'Me... too.' he said.

_'Way to go!' said Ron. 'He actually heard that? Have him order us some Nacos!'_

_Rhonda tried shouting other things, but Grimm didn't seem to notice. He was growing more shadowy to her eye, and she heard his communicator beeping. He and Rueful seemed to draw away from her somehow, no longer responding to her. 'Dang...' she said. 'I thought for a minute we were really simpatico...'_

_'We kind of are.' said Ron. 'Well, more than we were before. Haven't you noticed? We're still seeing stuff instead of just fading to black.'_

_And Rhonda looked around. It was true, they were still kind of 'in' the wooded area. The normal wall of darkness hadn't closed around them. She could still see Grimm and Rueful, but not so clearly as before. 'It sure beats the Darkness Channel.' she said with a faint smile, and another laughing snort._

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Grimm answered Jade's call more curtly than he intended. He could have sworn that he'd heard Rhonda speaking, but couldn't be certain. For a moment, he even thought he could smell her shampoo. _'_What?' he snapped, and at once the calm he had felt before disappeared. The moment was gone.

'Sorry....' said Jade, shrugging. 'Did I interrupt something?'

Grimm sighed and shook his head. 'No,' he said. 'What's the sitch?'

'Just had word from Lynn and Mim that Kim busted into the training yard tried it out on level ten.'

Grimm paused. 'Did... she make it?' he said.

'No,' Jade answered. 'But she got further than I thought she would on a first try. A little practice and she might match you.'

'Maybe.' Grimm said. 'But I don't think she'd have the patience to stick with it. She's more into attacks, and people with that mindset don't like playing defense.'

'Want a photo from the security camera of her getting hit?' Jade said.

Grimm sighed. 'I'm tired of taking jabs at her fighting skills.' he said, shaking his head. 'I'm more interested in knowing if she cashes Mr. Matter's check. If she does that, then I can really say I've scored a hit on her, no matter what the scoreboard in the training yard says.'

'She's been working all those years and never taken a dime.' said Jade. 'What makes you think now will be any different?'

'Everyone's got a breaking point.' said Grimm. 'I've been chipping away at her as patiently and steadily as I can ever since our first fight. I came pretty close to pushing her over the edge in the Zorpox sitch, and again in that fight in her backyard. But she still hasn't really given in. Hitting her with the big moral dilemmas has weakened her a little I think. And with Monique's family feeling a financial pinch, Mr. Matter's offer just might get her to start doubting.'

'The money's not really _dirty_.' said Jade. 'It's not like cashing the check is going to mean you've beaten her somehow.'

'I was never interested in beating Kim _physically_.' said Grimm, smirking. 'But to get Ms. High-And-Mighty to check her _principles_ at the door? Now _that's_ what I'd call a victory....'

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_**Part II: My golem told me you better shop around**_

There were a great number of abandoned warehouses and factories in Go City. The mayor didn't like to talk about it much, but the fact was that there were a number of businesses that failed every few years. And the warehouses for failed manufacturers became magnets for every super-villain who wanted someplace quiet to set up shop in Go City and try their schemes.

The mayor had to have a unit of police assigned specifically to patrol the known warehouse locations, just to make sure there were no villains in them. One of the patrol cars assigned to that detail drove by one of the warehouses on the outskirts of the business district of Go City. This particular warehouse was fairly well known as the launching point for several villains' schemes, including Aviarius, WEE, and Dementor. Jack Hench had also used it once to host a Go City villain's exposition.

The officer in the passenger seat of the car flashed his spotlight as they drove past the warehouse. Everything seemed quiet, with the light sliding over pools of shadow. Seeing nothing unusual, they didn't bother stopping the car to get out or check anything. They had several other warehouses to patrol, and not much time to spare. As the car moved off into evening traffic, they didn't notice the shadows pulling back from one corner of the building like an inky veil....

Maze released the shadow cloak as the police moved off, and turned his attention back to Dr. Drakken. Monkey Fist and a gang of about twenty golems were flanking Drakken and Shego while Drakken worked at a computer console set up on one of the tables. They were all gathered in one of the large upper rooms of the warehouse. In the distance, visible even past several surrounding buildings, was the Go City Research and Development complex, a vast building which housed the most brilliant scientists in Go City.

'How much longer?' said Maze impatiently. Even though night was falling, Go City and it's towering skyscrapers made him uncomfortable. The sooner they finished the job, the better.

'Patience!' Drakken hissed. 'Hacking into the R & D's security cameras isn't easy you know! This is one of the most heavily guarded buildings in the city, with all the other poser villains taking a crack at it every couple of weeks...'

'We're fortunate then that we don't need _control_ over any of their systems, only access. If you can arrange for us to see what their cameras are seeing, that should be enough.'

'Even that's going to be tricky,' Drakken muttered, his fingers dancing over the computer keyboard. 'Those eggheads don't like being spied on, believe me. I'll have to route in through the city's power grid, piggyback from the electrical systems into the security network, then... ah, there we go!'

The computer screen suddenly subdivided into a number of miniature windows showing views from surveillance cameras, arranged with scrolling lists on the left margin. 'Excellent.' said Monkey Fist, leaning closer. 'Now - focus on the areas of the building where the equipment you say you need will be located.'

Drakken typed and the screens shifted to a number of storage rooms. 'Nearly everything I'll need is packaged and waiting for any scientist who wants them for their projects.' he said. 'They always keep a stockpile of circuitry and materials at hand. But _looking_ at it doesn't get us any closer to being able to _take_ it...'

'Actually, it does.' said Monkey Fist with a smirk. '_Sskipoyiwa_ - it's your turn.'

Maze looked over the various screens which showed rows and rows of boxes stacked and labeled. He stared at them one after the other for several minutes, and then pointed. 'There!' he said, jabbing his finger at a darkened section of the storage rooms.

'Make the image larger and clearer, if you can.' said Monkey Fist to Drakken, who maximized the window and boosted the resolution. 'Now - let's get out of his way.'

Monkey Fist and the golems backed away, and Shego pulled Drakken out of the chair and off to the side while Maze stood in front of the monitor, his staff raised. He closed his eyes, and slowly began to chant.

_Sipimottakiksi,_

_Nikaahtomaana nitaanistsi'toyiiwa,_

_Sipimottakiksi, _

_Nikaahtomaana nitaanistsi'toyiiwa..._

Drakken sighed, tapping his feet as Maze prayed. After a couple of minutes, he looked at his watch. 'Can I step out for a bucket of extra crispy?' he whispered. 'This nonsense isn't getting us anywhere...'

'_Shhhh_.' Monkey Fist said curtly. 'Watch and _learn_.'

Drakken scowled and watched, getting bored again very quickly. He was about to fish out his communicator to play Mineswooper when he saw it. A patch of shadow in the corner of the room was getting thicker, spreading over the wall. After another few moments Drakken saw, or thought he saw, the R & D storage rooms. It was as if the wall had dissolved and revealed that they had somehow been inside the R & D building the whole time.

'What the _fandango_...?' Drakken breathed.

'Move _quickly_.' said Monkey Fist in a low voice. 'It isn't easy for him to maintain shadow passages.'

And Drakken found himself being hustled along with Monkey Fist, Maze and the other golems _into_ the R & D storage room. He blinked and looked around in amazement, reaching out and running his hand over one of the boxes as if he were positive this was some kind of illusion. Maze let out a gasp and leaned against one of the shelves.

'Well done,' said Monkey Fist in a hushed voice. 'Maze can't use his shadows to travel someplace, unless he has a clear visual objective to aim for. Normally, we can't enter a building from the outside. But with your assistance, we were given the anchor we needed to enter without detection. Maze, shroud the cameras.'

Maze raised a weary hand and chanted again. Shadows from the edges of the room washed over the surveillance cameras, covering them like a black sheet.

'Wouldn't it be easier to just have Shego take them out?' Drakken huffed.

'And just as easy for the security systems to alert people that they were no longer working.' said Monkey Fist. 'At least this way, we'll have some time to work while they try to figure out why there's no picture. Now - let's gather all you need into one place....'

At a gesture from Monkey Fist, the assembled golems began taking supplies down from shelves and stacking them in a corner of the huge storage room. Others fanned out to take more boxes down from other shelves. None of them noticed, distant on the far side of the storage room, another door silently closing.

One of the R & D facility janitors had been taking an unauthorized 'break' in the storage room, having found a section which the cameras didn't cover. He used it as a refuge when he didn't feel like sweeping or otherwise looking busy. He was there on a summer internship to get into Go City college, doing grunt work, cleaning and other such things in exchange for a foothold to be accepted at GCC.

But he had seen the bizarre entry of Monkey Fist and his group, and sneaked out as quickly as he could. He thought about telling his supervisor, but then remembered someone else he wanted to alert.

Finding an out of the way room, he fished a cell phone from his pocket and dialed out. After a few seconds, he heard a voice on the other end.

'Radcliffe?' said a tired voice. 'That you? I was sleeping, man - I don't need you to call braggin' about your internship again...!'

'Twitch - you remember those guys you said we should be watching out for?'

'Yeah....' said Twitch.

'They're _here_.'

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The Sloth and the _Ksikkihkíni_ were both rocketing through the evening sky. 'This was sudden.' said Monique, who was gripping the upholstery in the front seat very hard. Kim had her eyes fixed on the back of Grimm's bike, the faint taillights keeping it from disappearing into the descending gloom. 'I mean, I was just settling in for the night - we haven't heard a peep from Monkey-boy for days, now suddenly we're rushing to Go City like this is the final match?'

'It could be.' said Grimm, his voice unusually grave.

'How do we know this is on the level?' said Kim.

'We _don't_.' said Wade's, his picture popping up on the dashboard screen. 'All we've got is a word from this Twitch character...'

'Hey, don't you be dissin' the Twitch!' said Jade's voice, her image appearing in split screen. 'He and the Irregulars haven't let us down yet.'

'We're depending on a gang named 'Irregular'?' Wade said, his image staring at Jade's.

'If Twitch said they're at the Go City R&D, then that's where they are!' Jade said angrily.

'If they were _spotted_ there, how come the alarms haven't engaged?' Wade shot back. 'If they had, my computer would have alerted me...'

'Twitch held off - he wanted Grimm to have the first shot...' said Jade.

'We should alert the building right now!' Wade said. 'It'll take time to get there, and they could be long gone before we...'

'Uh uh, _bad_ idea super-genius!' Jade said. 'You raise the alarm and Monkey Fist and his gang will be off like a shot. Haven't you figured by now they can run rings around rent-a-cops? And if they have any golems in tow, they'd roll right over them anyway...'

'Well if they're _gone_ by the time we get there, we'll never know, will we?'

'Our contact inside the building said he'd pass it on if they were getting ready to leave...'

'How's he gonna tell that if he's hiding in the basement?'

'I'd bet my reputation on it, but going up against _your_ reputation means I'll have raised the ante higher than _you_ can afford!'

'That might be true if you_ had_ a reputation outside of Riddleton...'

Jade growled, her eyes narrowed and her teeth gritted, Wade growled right back with a similar expression. They fired back and forth in a series of snarling growls, sounding exactly like two dogs playing tug-of-war over a bone.

Grimm's voice broke in over the dashboard communicator. 'Guys - knock it off!' he shouted. 'Don't make me get the garden hose!' Both Wade and Jade fell silent, looking sheepish but still glaring angrily at each other.

'Wade raises a good point though,' said Grimm. 'How can we be sure they won't leave before we get there?'

'We've tapped into the R&D cameras,' said Jade with a sidelong glance at Wade's half of the screen. 'There's a number of them in the storage rooms that are blacked out...'

'It's Maze.' said Grimm. 'As long as he's there, he'll have his shadows covering their tracks. That's something, anyway...'

'Storage rooms?' said Kim. 'What are they after, Wade?'

'I've worked with the Go City R&D before on some science projects.' said Wade. 'The storage rooms have a lot of multi-purpose equipment that can be used for any number of things - circuitry, bulk metal, wiring... the really intricate stuff is kept separate, but on the same floor.'

'But neither of them are scientists....' said Kim, shaking her head. 'This sounds more like something Drakken would do.'

'Somehow they got the UAJ working.' said Wade, shrugging. 'But I'll bet they did a bad job putting it together. Maybe they're getting replacement parts. It would explain why we haven't detected any moves from them lately. Their Jammer may be down for repairs and they were lying low.'

'We'll soon find out.' said Grimm. 'Go City's dead ahead.'

Kim was surprised. They hadn't been traveling all that long, barely an hour. But they had been traveling fast - with the Sloth's jets, they could easily have covered a couple hundred miles. She checked her battle-suit, and saw that all the energy readings were green and ready to go. She glanced to the side and saw Monique looking scared, but determined. Rufus was in back with Enrique, and both of them were similarly quiet.

Kim fished a long, slender tool from her hip pouch. It was like a spike with a handle grip and a flattened edge - sharp and rather wicked looking. 'What's this thing for again?' said Kim.

'It's a titanium diamond-tipped stylus.' said Grimm. 'Wade and Jade cobbled them together yesterday. If you get the chance, slash it hard over the _Aleph_ symbol on the back of any golem's left hand. It should cure them like it did me. And I'll double Mr. Matter's check if you can do it to Monkey Fist.'

Kim put the stylus back in her hip pouch, sighing. She'd never carried a _weapon_ into a combat sitch before that she could recall. Even Wade's EMP gun wasn't a weapon in the strictest sense - it was only good against electronics. And her hand reflector was more of defensive tool...

Grimm seemed to be sensing her thoughts. 'Relax - you won't be using it on _people_.' he said. 'Whatever they were before, they're under Monkey Fist's control now. So don't hesitate to use it if they present a target. You'll be _helping_ them, not hurting them. Get ready to land.'

The reflective glass and steel skyscraper that was the Go City R&D building loomed ahead. It had several smaller structures attached, making for a ragged, but still impressive looking facility. They swooped overhead and Grimm's bike went into a stationary hover, lowering down smoothly onto a helipad on the main building's roof. The Sloth's jets meant Kim had to circle and lower a few times before she was in position to land.

They quickly moved their vehicles off to a darkened section of the roof. Grimm had already released Rueful and pried open an air conditioning vent, sending him off with an encouraging pat. Rufus jumped in after him and they both disappeared.

They gathered in front of a door leading to an inner stairwell, but didn't enter yet. 'We clear on the plan?' said Grimm quietly, looking like he was gearing up for a high-dive.

'Split up and cover the storage rooms in stealth mode.' Kim said. 'The minute either of us find Monkey Fist, we target him first.'

'Right.' said Grimm. 'Once he's down, that should immobilize the other golems. After that, it'll just be a matter of taking out Maze and breaking the enchantment on their victims.'

'How about _us_?' said Monique. 'Sorry, but I left my stealth-mode battle suit back home...'

You're backup.' said Kim, putting a hand on Monique's shoulder. 'If we can't stop them, then having you raise the alarm is our plan B. They may not be able to bring Ron back - but if we capture them, we can at least put the brakes on whatever else they've got planned. Coordinate with Wade and Jade and get to the lower floors.'

Monique nodded, and Enrique nodded to Grimm. 'Buena suerte.' he said softly, and Grimm nodded back.

'All right,' said Kim, squaring her shoulders. 'Wade, Jade? We're going in. Make sure we don't trip the alarms.'

'Right.' they both said at the same time. Wade continued. 'Opening door in three, two, one... _go_!'

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The door opened and they both dashed in, their images flickering out in the distorted haze of their stealth modes. Without speaking, they ran through the corridors until they got to the elevator. They each pried one side of the door open, checked the shaft to make sure the elevator wasn't running, then slid down the cable until they reached the floor Wade said was the storage level.

They couldn't see each other, but Grimm whispered 'Here,' and Kim saw that the elevator doors leading into the storage level were warped, bent, and wouldn't open. 'Looks like they don't want visitors.' Grimm said softly.

Rufus' head poked out of a vent in the wall of the elevator shaft at that moment. 'Rufus!' Kim whispered. 'Find another vent and see if anyone's waiting on the other side of this door!'

Rufus gave the OK sign and whipped out of sight. A few seconds later he reappeared and gave them the thumbs-up. 'Help me out here.' said Kim, turning back to Grimm.

Grimm nodded and took out his stylus, forcing it into a crack between the doors. They heaved and pried in unison for a few seconds, and the doors wrenched open slightly, allowing them to force them open to the point where they could squeeze through. The corridor went both directions, stretching nearly out of sight before rounding distant corners. 'I'll take the left, you take the right.' Grimm muttered. 'Set your communicator to vibrate - if you find Monkey Fist, buzz me.'

And they split up, racing down the hallways.

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'_This is kind of exciting!' said Ron. 'I never realized how much our missions must look like a TV show when you're just watching. It sure is different when you're spectating.'_

_Rhonda nodded. They were both watching what was happening in the labs, but it was a kind of split-screen vision. She was seeing what Grimm was doing, while Ron seemed only to see Kim. They were also seeing through the stealth mode somehow, as if through a haze. 'Come on G-Man,' she whispered. 'Taking these jerks down could be our big break...'_

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Kim sped silently through the storage level, swiftly checking every door she passed to see if any were open. There didn't seem to be anyone around, but she stopped suddenly, seeing a lone scientist standing motionless in the corridor. He was holding up a clipboard as if screening his eyes, but he wasn't moving. She moved more cautiously until she noticed something strange. His coat wasn't white, it was gray - rough and stiff looking. His arms, hair and neck were similarly stone-like in appearance. Circling around to view him from the front, she saw he was indeed petrified. _'Looks like Wade owes Twitch an apology.' _Kim thought.

Then further down the corridor, she saw a small group crossing from one side of the hall to the other, passing out one door an in through another. She caught an echoing fragment that she was sure was Monkey Fist's voice.

'...quickly, there's no telling how long before....'

She glanced back at the frightened looking, but petrified scientist. She didn't like just leaving him there, but there was nothing she could do for him except to defeat Monkey Fist. She sidled down the corridor until she reached the door where the figures had entered and peered in.

She felt a thrill of anticipation as she saw Monkey Fist, and a pair of golems. Monkey Fist was standing a few feet inside a lab room filled with intricate looking gadgetry. The golems were taking items down from shelves and pulling others loose from housings in the wall. And she felt a sudden jolt of surprise as she saw another figure, further inside the room, overseeing the golems - a man with dark hair and light blue skin.

_'Dr. Drakken?'_ she thought. _'Now he's mixed up with this?'_ she tapped her Kimmunicator to alert Grimm.

'Can you go any faster?' said Monkey Fist. 'Without Maze, there's no way to escape from this building. We should get back to him as quickly as possible.'

'We'll need a lot of this stuff!' said Drakken. 'Just a few more minutes...'

Kim checked that her stealth mode was still on, and she entered the room. Monkey Fist was only a couple of feet away now, his arms at his sides, his left hand totally exposed. She took the stylus out of her belt, edging closer....

_Watching from the spirit world, Ron was biting his nails. 'Oh man!' he said. 'It's the suspense that gets me!'_

She was so close she could see every detail on the roughened surface of Monkey Fist's petrified skin. And she could faintly see the Hebrew symbols on the back of his left hand. She raised the stylus, ready to strike...

There was a sudden popping electrical noise, and the shield mode on her suit activated, bubbling out and shutting off her stealth mode. The shield faded as soon as it had flared up, leaving Kim standing in plain sight.

Everyone in the room stood frozen for a moment, staring. Monkey Fist's mouth hung open in surprise. He saw the stylus in her hand, and saw where she was standing.

Kim brought the stylus down with all her strength. Monkey Fist's face showed a flicker of shock, and he twisted, turning to the side. Kim's strike went across his back, sending sparks flying out.

They squared off and Kim saw Monkey Fist put his right hand quickly over his left hand, covering the _emet_ symbols. _'Kim Possible!'_ shouted both Drakken and Monkey Fist.

'So it seems you did a little studying while you were hiding from us.' said Monkey Fist, looking at the stylus again. 'Who knew you had it in you?'

Kim glowered. She wasn't sure how she would get to him now that he was on his guard. But on the plus side, he seemed more wary of her. 'Come on, _Monty_.' she said tauntingly, moving closer to him, 'It's polite to shake hands, isn't it?' She noted that Monkey Fist was actually backing away.

'I don't think so.' he said, shaking his head. 'If your studies cover what I _think_ they've covered, then you'll understand if I decline.'

'Then let's see how good your kung-fu is when you can't use both arms.' Kim said.

Monkey Fist smirked. 'Another time perhaps.' he said. 'I'm on a bit of a timetable, and besides, there's someone else here you forgot to greet...'

Kim saw a blurry shadow descending from above, and in an instant, she raised her shield. Something large and heavy impacted against it with a flash of blue light.

Kim allowed herself a smirk as Shego rebounded off the shield and went sprawling into a number of desks and chairs, scattering them around. Kim went into the ready position as Shego clambered onto her feet, stepping forward through the dimness of the lab.

'You're not as sure on your feet as you used to be, are you She....' and Kim paused as Shego stepped into the full light. Her face was flat and expressionless, and every part of her was gray and stiff. 'She..._golem_?' Kim said.

Shego charged at her like a stampeding rhino, bringing her arm down in an overhand chop as Kim leapt aside. Her strike split one of the desks in half with a splintering crash as Shego righted herself and attacked again.

'That's it, Shego!' Drakken shouted, shaking his fist as he popped up from behind one of the chairs. 'Give her the old one-two!'

'Gather what you can and return to the main room!' said Monkey Fist, backing out of the door. 'I must return and warn Maze. I trust Shegolem can handle things, and I can't abide _girl talk_.'

Kim winced as Monkey Fist disappeared into the corridors, but she couldn't go after him. Shego blocked her way, hurling a desk at her with a swift heave of her arms. Kim rolled to the side, but the desk crashed into the door leading out, blocking it.

Kim traded blows with Shego for several seconds. Shego seemed as invulnerable as all the other golems, but she had superior fighting skills. Shego struck quickly and forcefully enough that Kim was on the defensive, and she tried shifting to Tai Sheng Pek Kwar, blocking and waiting for a chance to use the stylus....

'Use your glow!' Drakken shouted, pushing dozens of loose components onto a hand truck and motioning the other two golems to pick up the heavier items. 'Show her who's boss!'

Shego's hands flared up with green energy, and Kim flipped through the room with a series of handsprings. Desks, chairs and other objects exploded behind her as Shego's attacks blasted into them.

Kim paused and braced herself, activating her hand unit. The reflecting module spread out over her fingers and she caught the next incoming fireball, smoothly sending it back with a pivoting whirl.

The blast hit Shego square in her stomach and she flew backwards. Dr. Drakken squealed and dived out of the way as she flew past, smashing into more tables before coming to a stop near the back wall.

_'Booya!' Ron shouted, pumping a fist in the air. 'Insufficient postage - return to sender!'_

'By the way Shego, Midas called asking about your new skin treatment.' said Kim, tauntingly. 'He wanted to know if they could use you as a hot stone in their massage spa.'

Drakken was still cringing, shaking his fist as Shego stood up, broken fragments of wood and tile crumbling off of her. 'You don't have to take that!' he shouted. 'Hit her with everything you've got!'

Shego raised both hands and a massive beam of green energy lanced across the room. Kim raised her shield, but found herself sailing backwards through the wall, rolling like a ball as the shield bubble was surrounded by the energy blast.

Drakken stared at the hole left by Shego's attack, seeing a few bits of drywall crumbling to the ground. 'Oooh.' he said. 'That... was pretty good.'

Shegolem said nothing, but hoisted a crate of parts onto her shoulder and strode towards the door. She kicked the smashed desk through it and left, practically dragging Dr. Drakken behind her. The remaining golems followed them in silence, hauling their burdens.

Kim pushed bits and pieces of shattered furniture off with a low groan. Shego had never unleashed that much power before. She remembered Monkey Fist saying that his golems were unaware of pain or fear, and thought that must be the reason - without any regard for her endurance or limits, she was able to release a lot more energy with her glow. Kim got up and saw that she had been blasted clean through at least two sets of walls. She dusted herself off and went back in pursuit.

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_**Part III: Withdrawal symptoms**_

Maze stood in the large storage room, watching over the remaining golems as they continued to pull boxes from shelves and stack them in the corner. The pile was sizeable now, and he knew it would take effort and concentration to move themselves and everything else back to the warehouse.

He didn't like letting Monkey Fist or Drakken out of his sight, but he knew following them while they searched for more equipment would be pointless as he knew little about such things. He watched with growing anticipation as their pile of supplies continued to grow. Everything they took brought him that much closer to his final goal...

He suddenly went sprawling, feeling something kick him hard on his backside. He flailed, tripped and crashed painfully against one of the surrounding metal shelf units. He struggled, getting clumsily to his feet and trying to set his cloak aright, as it had flapped over his head.

He whirled around, looking around for his attacker, but he could see no one. The golems were still collecting supplies as if nothing had happened. 'Who dares to strike me?' he said, his voice echoing through the corridors between the high shelves. 'Show yourself!'

'You got it, _Sskipoyiwa_.'

Maze's eyes flew wide as a figure with auburn hair stepped out of the shadows, wearing a black suit with glowing orange bands. 'No...' he said, his voice dropping to a low whisper. '_It can't be you! It's not possible!'_

'Not possible... _probable_.' said Grimm, and despite himself he couldn't resist pausing to take in the sight of Maze's face. He had always discerned dislike, hatred and contempt behind Maze's eyes in each of their encounters, but now there was something he hadn't seen before - fear. 'That's right, Maze. We've found out the secret of your golems, _and_ how to cure them. Your shadow-medicine isn't as strong as you thought - we'll find a way to bring Rhonda back too. Your scheme is finished!'

Grimm had started checking the inner rooms once his circuit of the main corridor revealed nothing. He had quickly spotted Maze and the golems at their labor, and was unable to resist the target, even after feeling Kim's buzzer alert. He felt confident that Possible could hit Monkey Fist - after all, attacking was her specialty.

Maze gestured, and a number of golems left their work and surrounded him, forming a protective wall and blocking Grimm's path. 'Destroy him!' Maze shouted, and they charged forward.

Grimm used his shield and wove his way through their midst, focusing not so much on blocking their attacks as avoiding them. And sure enough, one of the golems punched with his left fist. One dodge, and the sigils for _emet_ were right under his eyes. The stylus flashed out and struck true, sparking and leaving a deep scratch across the _aleph_ symbol.

At once, the golem froze in place. There was a hissing as of something burning quickly in a sudden flame, and the stony skin seemed to melt from the golem. It was a middle-aged man who fell to his knees with a gasp, looking around and cowering as the other golems continued to attack Grimm.

Grimm raised his shield and slid to a new place, waiting for another attack and another chance to strike. Maze felt another surge of fear and anger as he saw his former golem slave attempt to run, crawling and scrambling outside of the attacking circle. Unfortunately, the man bumped straight into Monkey Fist, who emerged through the door.

'My good fellow,' said Monkey Fist, smiling at him, 'Why would you want to leave now when things are just getting interesting?' There was a blast of yellow light and the man stood petrified once again.

Grimm saw this out of the corner of his eye. '_So Possible blew it.' _he thought bitterly. _'Do I have to do everything? What could have made her drop the ball like that....?'_ But the question was answered a moment later when Shego and Dr. Drakken came through the doorway as well, with more golems carrying more supplies. _'Oh snap.'_ he thought, suddenly realizing how the odds were stacked against him at the moment.

'What the... _Probable?_' said Dr. Drakken in surprise. 'Why are we fighting _him_? He's one of my best hirees!'

But Monkey Fist was pulling the petrified man back towards the stacked boxes. 'Defend Maze!' he shouted to the golem workers. 'He's our only means of escape!' Then turning to the shadow shaman, he spoke quickly. 'They know about the golem enchantment, and they're targeting _me_.' he said. 'Concentrate your power and get us back to the warehouse so we can regroup and return to the lair - we can't afford to stay here any longer!'

Maze nodded and retreated to the stacked boxes, sitting down and concentrating. Several golems surrounded him and Monkey Fist shouted again. 'Have them protect their hands - we mustn't lose any of them!'

Monkey Fist turned back to the fight and saw Grimm weaving through the other golems, rushing towards him. Quickly, he covered his left hand with his right, shielding the _emet_ symbols. _'Remain calm, and focus...'_ he thought. He felt a jarring blow against his chin, but held his ground and ignored it, keeping his eyes closed. _'With the symbols protected, he can't harm me - I must release my anger to bring out the power of destruction...'_

Grimm hacked at Monkey Fist's hand with the stylus, but with the right hand covering the left, he couldn't reach the symbols and he knew he wouldn't be able to pry the other hand away. All of the golems were doing the same thing, looking slightly ridiculous, as if they were all getting ready to swing invisible baseball bats.

He turned his eyes to Maze. If Monkey Fist was on to the ruse, then their next best option was to take out Maze and prevent them from escaping. He geared himself to attack when Kim suddenly burst into the room.

'What?' Drakken shrieked from his hiding place behind Maze. 'She's wasn't fried? Nnnn! Shego - use your glow and keep her away from me!'

The Shegolem's hands flared green, and she began hurling plasma energy at Kim, who tumbled and rolled until she was side by side with Grimm. Both their shields were up, forming half bubbles of blue and orange.

'Where were you?' Grimm said, plasma bursts flaring outside their protective domes, 'I thought you found Monkey Fist first - how'd he get away?'

'Where were _you_?' Kim answered, activating her hand module, 'My stealth mode shorted out and I had to take them on alone!'

'Great.' Grimm sneered, and he saw a yellow glow building around Monkey Fist. 'Keep him off balance - we can't let him use the Yono's power!' They dropped their shields and attacked, with Kim using her grapple line to swing up towards Monkey Fist and Grimm cutting a weaving path through Shego's attacks, dodging them as if they were tennis balls back in the training yard.

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_Ron and Rhonda were both biting their nails as they watched the scene unfolding in front of them. 'Go on, Grimm!' Rhonda shouted. 'Teach that double-crossing jerk a lesson!'_

_'Go on, Kim!' Ron yelled. 'Steamroll that bad road!'_

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Monkey Fist opened his eyes, ready to attack, but saw a white and a black blur descending from above. The yellow light of the Yono's power built, but seemed to fizzle as both Kim and Grimm struck at the same time, sending Monkey Fist slamming against the wall. They both took hold of one of Monkey Fist's shoulders, then rolled backwards, pulling him down and activating their booster soles.

Monkey Fist went sprawling into the middle of the warehouse, separated from Maze and the other golems, who were standing guard around the shadow shaman.

Kim looked at Grimm, and for the first time since their shaky alliance was formed, she felt a sense of genuine understanding. They both nodded, braced themselves, and charged at Monkey Fist as one.

They cycled and timed their moves almost perfectly. Kim concentrated on striking at him, aiming for his left hand with the stylus. Whenever Monkey Fist struck back, Kim would circle out, looking for a better striking position, and Grimm would take over, using his defensive techniques to fend off Monkey Fist's attacks.

Between their shields and their timed maneuvers, they kept Monkey Fist on the defensive most of the time. He put up a tremendous fight, fending both of them off, but he was also trying to protect his left hand, leaving him less able to defend himself.

Kim and Grimm kicked hard and flipped backwards, landing on their feet while Monkey Fist tumbled and crashed into one of the walls. He stood up awkwardly, looking angry.

'Don't let him call on the Yono's power!' Grimm shouted again, and they charged again.

If Monkey Fist hadn't been totally annoyed, he would have appreciated the graceful and nearly choreographed appearance of Kim and Grimm's attacks. Kim struck again, keeping him pinned against the wall, while Grimm leaped high and caught her arms in mid-air, using his own momentum to send her whirling back towards Monkey Fist. Kim caught on at once and spun at him like a ballerina through the air, lashing out with a powerful kick, timed with her shield. The impact sent Monkey Fist blasting straight through the wall, skidding nearly a dozen yards and cutting a rough swath through several more desks.

He was too disoriented to be able to concentrate and focus his emotions to bring out the Yono's power, and could only brace himself as he saw Kim rushing at him again, ready to strike. But just a few feet away, Kim seemed to freeze in mid-step. Her suit was sparking in a few places and she looked as if she were struggling.

Seizing the opportunity, Monkey Fist surged forward and seized her ankle, pivoting and swirling her in a wide circle. Kim gritted her teeth, hammering on the control for her shield. It flared up just as she collided with Grimm, who had been rushing forward from behind. Then at once, he leaped back through the hole to rejoin Maze and the others.

Both Kim and Grimm flew sprawling backwards, tumbling and crashing through the debris which had already been scattered around during the battle. Grimm heaved up first, pushing Kim off of him. She also tried to get to her feet, but her suit sparked again and she couldn't move her right arm or leg.

'It's damaged!' she said, 'Go on without me!'

Grimm nodded and hurdled over a desk, heading back into the main storage room. Without waiting, he dashed through the hole in the wall. Turning on the flashlight built into one of his wrist bands, he looked desperately around, darting through corridors between high shelving units.

But he knew it was too late. There were no other sounds, no activity at all and he knew he hadn't been so far behind Monkey Fist that they could be out of sight in a room this big. They were gone again.

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_Ron remained near to Kim, and Rhonda followed Grimm as he searched in vain. Their disappointment was palpable. 'Oh man...' Ron moaned. 'That was so close...'_

_And Rhonda's vision of Grimm faded as he looked back to make sure Kim couldn't see him. Then he pulled one of the smaller boxes off the shelves and threw it threw it across the room, chasing after it and kicking it several times with a furious look on his face._

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Soon after Maze's and Monkey Fist's escape, Monique and Enrique had arrived with the building's security. Once the fighting had started, Wade and Jade had been unable to stop the building's silent alarms from going off. Monique and Enrique had been halfway down to the main levels by then, but had quickly run into a squad of guards. It had taken them several long minutes to explain that they were trying to _lead_ the guards upstairs to where the real theft was taking place. By the time that had all been sorted out, the fight was over.

The petrified scientist was taken to one of the labs for immediate study, but neither Wade nor Jade felt that this would lead to anything since they had learned pretty much everything they could when Grimm had been turned to stone. The other scientists who had questioned them after the battle were understandably skeptical about golems and the 'Yono'. After strongly stating that these were the facts, the scientists smiled patronizingly and assured Kim that the matter would be 'taken under advisement'.

Grimm had quickly found Rueful, reactivated his stealth mode and disappeared the moment the fight ended, leaving Kim to sort out the mess. The R & D administrators, learning that the famous Kim Possible had been involved, seemed quite understanding. After the questioning, they seemed to accept her being there on a mission without objection.

One of them seemed suspicious that so much equipment had gone missing, and suggested that Kim might know more than she was letting on. But he quickly fell into muttering silence when his peers asked him _where_ the supplies might be hidden if Kim was still there and the supplies weren't.

'You and your friends are free to go, Ms. Possible.' said the head administrator, Dr. Kleiner. 'After helping Team Go to defeat the Mathter a while back, the entire city owes you a great debt!'

'No big, Dr. Kleiner.' Kim answered. 'Though Mr. Stoppable, the Actuary of the Year did all the heavy... mathing. If your people can find out anything about how Monkey Fist got away, the info could help a lot.'

Kim had even been allowed to go back to the roof unescorted. Grimm and his bike were gone, but Enrique seemed more than happy for the chance to get back in the Sloth and glue his eyes back onto Monique. Kim had been worried that Grimm had ditched them completely, and they wouldn't be able to find their way back to Riddleton. But soon after she had taken off into the night sky, the _Ksikkihkíni_ swooped in front of them and she began following.

Grimm didn't say a word on the flight back. It wasn't until he'd guided Kim along a winding, twisting path back to Riddleton that he said anything. Once they were inside the Fatigable's garage he started, and he sounded angry. 'What happened back there?' he snapped as Kim and the others got out of the Sloth. 'You were fighting like you were working _with_ Monkey Fist!'

'The suit's malfunctioning!' Kim fired back. 'It wasn't my fault...'

'Faulty carpenter blames his tools.' Grimm said, glaring. 'If it wasn't for your klutzing around, we might have had him...'

'Look I'm sorry.' said Kim heatedly. She was used to Ron apologizing for some mistake or other, she wasn't used to being the one responsible for a failed mission. It felt doubly weird apologizing to _Grimm_ of all people. 'The suit was acting funny after the fight in Basalton,' she said, 'But it seemed all right afterwards...'

'Give it to Jade so she can fix it.' said Grimm, his stare turning icy. 'We'll need the suits more than ever now.'

'Why?' said Monique.

Grimm sighed, sitting down on a stool near a workbench. 'I spilled the beans to Maze that we know how to cure the golems.' he said. 'I should have kept my cool, but I didn't. Plus, Kim made a direct try for the symbols on Monkey Fist's hand, so _he_ knows we're onto him as well. Ten to one they're putting metal gauntlets over his hand right now, probably the other golems too. We blew our best chance of taking Monkey Fist out of commission.' He shook his head, running his hand across his eyes.

'It's not so bad, Senor Grimm.' said Enrique, shuffling uncomfortably. 'They ran away - perhaps they're not so strong.'

'They ran away with most of the stuff they came for.' said Grimm. 'And we're not any closer to finding out where they are. They'll be even more on their guard, and the ball's totally in their court now. If the best we can hope for is for them to screw up and give us another shot, then that's not saying much about our chances.'

'We might be in luck then.' said Kim. 'It looks like they have Dr. Drakken helping them out. Finding his lair is always a piece of cake.'

'Use your brains, Possible.' said Grimm sullenly. 'They turned Shego into a golem - which means they've got _him_ on a tight leash too. They're keeping him under wraps just like the rest of their operation. No wonder Drakken hasn't called with any job requests lately - he's been working with _them_.'

'What do they want with him anyway?' said Monique. 'I thought he was like a 'D' list villain.'

'He's an A-list reverse engineer.' said Jade, her voice piping in through the communicator in Grimm's hip pouch. Grimm fished it out and held it up absent-mindedly, letting Jade speak. 'He may not be much for inventing his own stuff, but he's got a real gift for taking other people's inventions, duplicating them and adding his own little twists.'

'Oh _crud_.' said Wade from Kim's wrist Kimmunicator. 'The stuff they were taking - it could be used to make a bigger version of the Ultra-Atmospheric Jammer!'

Grimm slapped the workbench, shaking his head. 'Bingo.' he said, frustration edging his voice. 'Once they've got a full-sized version of that thing, they could target an entire _city_ with the Yono's power. If dealing with twenty golems was tough, just think what it'll be like going up against a _million_ of them.'

'I went over an inventory of the missing stuff.' said Wade. 'They're still missing some key components to duplicate an Oscillation Overthruster.'

'Then we've still got two leads we can use.' said Kim.

'Two?' said Grimm, still leaning over the workbench and looking down. 'I only see one.'

'I see another.' said Kim, smiling faintly. 'If they're using Drakken to duplicate the Jammer, then I think it's time we had a talk with the guy who _invented_ it.'

- + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - +

Back at the mountain lair, Maze was storming back and forth, clutching at his staff. '_Otaatoyiwa_ knows my secret!' he shouted. 'He knows how to release my slaves from the enchantment!'

'It changes nothing...' said Monkey Fist, shaking his head, but Maze shouted over him.

'It changes _everything_!' Maze said, 'If they can cure my golems, they can also return you to your immobile state! And if they can do that, the entire plan is in jeopardy!' He kept pacing, wringing his hands, lashing out with his staff and knocking a few items to the cavern floor.

Drakken watched Maze's ranting with a raised eyebrow. 'Is... that how _I_ look when I do that?' he said.

'Sometimes.' said Monkey Fist with a shrug.

'We have to destroy them!' Maze hissed, a wild light in his eyes. 'We have to destroy them _now_! I won't let them stop me, not when I'm so close to...'

'Calm yourself.' said Monkey Fist. 'Possible has gone into hiding with Probable. We can't destroy them if we don't know where they are.'

'Where does he live?' Maze said. 'You trained him - in your past dealings you must have found out where he...'

'No.' said Monkey Fist, shaking his head. 'He was always very guarded about where he lived. No one who hired him ever knew - he always came to us.'

'We can't let them walk free!' Maze shouted.

'I agree.' said Monkey Fist, calmly. 'But it must be planned carefully. We must find a way to draw them out into the open - on _our_ terms.'

Maze nodded, seeming to calm down a little, though his brows were still knitted. 'How shall we do that?'

'I doubt I could talk Probable into revealing his hiding place,' said Monkey Fist, stroking his chin with a stony, grating sound. 'But.. there is still Possible. I know where _her_ home is.'

'Let us use the machine.' said Maze, nodding. 'I will turn her whole town into our slaves...'

'I have a better idea.' said Monkey Fist. 'Turning her friends to stone would not _harm_ them. But Possible will never stand idly by if she thinks her friends are in danger.'

'Then what do you suggest?'

Monkey Fist strode towards the inner chamber. Maze followed him, and seeing that no one seemed to notice him, Drakken also followed. He felt a thrill as he entered the cavern, like a child sneaking downstairs to peek at his Christmas presents. He saw that the inner cavern was nearly as large as the main cavern. Several golems were laboring, some carrying out baskets of rock chips, others climbing up and down a series of ladders. 'As fate would have it,' said Monkey Fist, 'Your side project may be just the thing. I believe it's time we made our dear Ms. Possible aware of the forces she is now dealing with.'

He and Maze stopped and stared up at a vast shape that reached from the floor of the cavern nearly up to its sixty foot high roof. Drakken's mouth fell open as he saw that it was a statue, hewn out of the mountain rock.

'As an Englishman, it goes against my grain to use a German turn of phrase,' said Monkey Fist. 'However, in this case I can think of no better word to describe your creation than... the_ Ubergolem_.'

_Coming Soon:_

_Chapter 23_

_It can be paper - or lenses - or people..._

_Author: Shego + golem = Shegolem. I've been waiting for ages to spring that little gag! As promised, the action is heating up. What will Maze do with the Ubergolem? Is this their endgame? Or do they have yet more riddles wrapped within riddles? Don't miss the next chapter as the physical battles turn spiritual as well, and one member of the shaky Possible/Probable alliance discovers a strength they never knew possible..._


	24. Ch 23: Contact

A Friend In Darkness  
All Things Probable 3

A Kim Possible Fanfiction  
by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and its affiliates, etc. etc.

_This chapter is dedicated to 'Commander Argus', who died in a bicycle accident this year. Farewell, Commander - you'll always be missed..._

_At times I almost dream  
I too have spent a life the sages' way,  
And tread once more familiar paths. Perchance  
I perished in an arrogant self-reliance  
Ages ago; and in that act a prayer  
For one more chance went up so earnest, so...  
Instinct with better light let in by death,  
That life was blotted out -- not so completely  
But scattered wrecks enough of it remain,  
Dim memories, as now, when once more seems_

_The goal in sight again...._

Chapter 23  
Contact

_The Return of the Great Bear Spirit_

It was the day after the battle in the Go City R&D Labs, and school was out at Riddleton High. Kim had led the cheer squad through another practice which blew the socks off all the observers except Grimm, who was still acting as if he didn't notice them. But after school and practice, there was a meeting Kim had arranged.

After getting Jade to agree to a monitored communication outside of Riddleton, and setting it up so everything was filtered, Kim had been allowed to contact a prison which was known for it's infamous "Cell Block D".

The meeting was arranged, and Kim followed Grimm on another winding trip beyond Riddleton, eventually arriving at the prison. They were escorted to an interrogation room. Monique had not wanted to come along since she didn't want to risk bumping into the Fashionistas again, and Enrique had also bowed out, saying he wanted to 'keep Monique company'.

So it was Kim, Rufus, Grimm and Rueful who wound up in one of the prison interrogation rooms; a boxy, confining cell painted a rather unpleasant brown with no furniture besides a table and a set of chairs, all of which were bolted down. A heavy two-way mirror was set across from the table, and there were two exits, one on each side of the room. Both of them had thick doors and heavy locks.

Grimm had seemed shrunken and fidgety, as if he didn't want to be there, and was content to let Kim do all the talking on the way in. He seemed to be doing all he could to be as unobtrusive as possible, and Kim could guess why.

'You wondering when you'll wind up here?' she said. 'If you weren't a merc, places like this wouldn't bother you.'

Grimm sniffed, watching Kim sit down at the table, but he did not sit down himself. He retreated to a darker corner of the room and seemed to be trying to blend into the shadows. 'So why am I here?' he muttered.

'_Besides_ the fact that I need you to guide me back to Riddleton,' said Kim icily, 'anything you know about the prisoner that might get him to go along could be useful. Let's just say I don't think he'd want to help me out of the kindness of his heart.'

The door on the opposite side of the room opened with a dull clanking noise as the lock slid open. Two huge guards with stern expressions were wheeling a dolly into the room, and strapped into the dolly was a short man in an orange prison uniform. His skin was also orange, and his head was obscured by a domed, black helmet that showed only his eyes and his mouth. The guards loosed his straps and sit him down in one of the chairs, cuffing both hands into thick metal pegs drilled into the table.

'Uh...' said Kim, curiously. 'Was this necessary? I can take care of myself.'

One of the guards shrugged. 'He insisted on the restraints. He says they make him look more dangerous.'

The prisoner then spoke in a German accent, and a scowling smile was visible beneath the helmet. 'Fraulaine Possible - how good to see you!' said Professor Dementor. 'I have so few visitors, and it's such a surprise to be called on by ze person who _put me in this prison in ze first place!'_ He shouted the last words, leaning forward angrily, his expression furious.

The guards each let their batons slam down next to his hands and Dementor flinched, retreating back into his chair. 'Well - to what do I owe this unexpected visit?' he said resentfully. 'Ze last time we met was when I was improbably defeated by your cousin Larry and his annoying 'scenarios'. If this is about your battle-suit, then you know as well as I do that I failed to....'

'This isn't about the battle-suit, Dementor.' said Kim, cutting across him. 'I need to know everything you can tell me about the Ultra-Atmospheric Jammer.'

Dementor seemed surprised. 'Ze machine I built a while back? Ze one which you _destroyed_?' he said. 'Why should I help ze girl who turned my magnificent creation into a smoking pile of junk?'

'Because someone's rebuilding it.' she said.

'Good!' said Dementor with a satisfied grin. 'I hope they use it to take down your infernal crime-fighting website! That would serve you right for interfering with ze oppressed villains of ze world! Though I admit, I am surprised to see _you_, Herr Probable.' he said, turning to Grimm. 'Why are you here with this crime-_fighter_? Normally you hire out to _me_.'

'I have no idea what you're talking about.' said Grimm cagily, with an eye on the security cameras and the two-way mirror. 'I only hire out to clients who have payoffs that interest me. Right now, helping Possible get this job done has a payoff I'm _really _interested in.'

'And what might _that_ be?' said Dementor.

'Nunna. As in, _nunna your beeswax_.'

'Well,' said Dementor, with a gleam in his eyes, 'If it's _payoffs_ that we are talking about, then perhaps I could be persuaded to give you ze information you want - if ze price is right.'

Kim braced herself. 'What exactly are you asking for?'

Dementor smirked. 'I want you to surrender to me your self-healing, spring-stepping, shield-raising hand thingy battle suit!' he said, his voice rising.

Kim sighed, rolling her eyes. 'Are you _still_ obsessing over the suit?' she said.

'Ja!' Dementor said. 'I cannot stop thinking about ze suit! I rave about claiming it for my own every night!'

'It's true,' said one of the guards, looking at Dementor with distaste. 'He _does_.'

'You see?' said Dementor, gesturing at the guard. 'Even _they_ know it! Now hand over ze battle-suit, and perhaps I will give you ze information you seek!'

'Get real, Professor.' said Grimm. 'What good would the suit do you while you're behind bars? Why not ask for something more practical - like an early parole?'

Dementor paused, tapping his bearded chin. 'Ja.... I suppose freedom would be nice. But that still does not get me ze battle-suit!'

'You're a super-genius.' said Grimm idly. 'Why do you need to steal someone _else's_ suit when you could design one of your own? Aren't you the one who's always saying that only losers steal other people's inventions?'

'Don't get _smart_ with me Herr Probable, you're not qualified!' Dementor snapped. 'I _want_ that battle-suit!'

'That's the best deal we can offer you.' said Grimm, folding his arms. 'Early parole or nothing. Your choice.'

'Could you excuse us for a moment?' said Kim, standing up and pulling Grimm back to the far corner of the room. Once they were there, she leaned in with a hissing whisper. 'What's this _early parole_ stuff?' she said. 'When I put the bad guys in jail, I don't let them out! Not for the Fashionistas, and _not_ for Dementor!'

'Wake up, Possible. You want info from him and he's got no reason to give it to you without some kind of deal.'

'I don't make deals with criminals!'

'Then it's a good thing I came along after all.' Grimm whispered back. 'I knew you wouldn't have the guts, so I'll do it _for_ you. I've already contacted Leigh Gality. She says she can work out an early release since he didn't actually hurt anyone, as long as he pays for the damage to your closet. We get what we want, he gets his deal, and you don't have to soil your reputation.'

'If I sit back and _let_ you spring him, it's as bad as if I'd done it myself!'

Grimm sighed and rolled his eyes. 'You can catch him again _later_ when this is over,' he whispered. 'Right now we've got bigger fish to fry.'

'He should _stay_ behind bars!' Kim spat.

'Come on, he'd just escape again like he always does!' Grimm hissed back. 'We need him to spill about the Jammer if there's any chance he knows a weakness! You can list yourself as a conscientious objector if you want, but I'm making this deal!'

Kim clenched her fists as Grimm turned away and went back to the table. 'How about it, Professor?' he said, 'If you tell us everything you can about your Jammer, we can give you freedom and a shot at making your _own_ battle-suit.'

Dementor folded his arms, the chains on his handcuffs clinking. 'You must sweeten ze deal for me, or you get nothing!' he said defiantly. 'Ze fact that you are trying to make deals with me says that you are desperate! So decide for yourselves if ze 'sitch' is serious enough that you are willing to gamble ze risks against my humble demands!'

'Then we're wasting our time here,' said Grimm, shaking his head and moving towards the door. 'Come on,' he said to Kim. 'It looks like Drakken was right...'

'What?' said Dementor, his eyes suddenly slitted behind the eyeholes of his helmet, 'Drakken? What has that loser got to do with this?'

'Didn't you know?' said Grimm, and Kim was able to see the perfectly timed hesitations and inflections in his voice. 'He's the one ripping off the designs on your Jammer - and unless things change, it looks like he'll be the one to finish what you started.'

Dementor's eyes went from slitted to popping, looking like they would spring out of his helmet. 'But.... ze Jammer was....._ is_... my creation! He can't do that - ze Jammer belongs to _me_!'

Grimm shrugged. 'I know it stinks,' he said, and actually sounded consoling. 'But you know how these things work - it's not the inventor who gets the credit these days, it's the guy who gets the invention up and running. And the whole world is going to be buzzing that Dr. Drakken succeeded where you _failed_.' He hammered on the door, which opened with a loud buzz, and motioned Kim out with a sidelong wink.

Kim took the hint and sighed heavily, walking towards the doorway. 'Who knew _Drakken_ would turn out to be the better scientist...' she muttered, just loud enough for her voice to carry. 'Soon everyone will be calling it the Drakken Doomsday Device...'

Dementor was gargling incoherently, twisting his hands in their restraints. 'Wait!' he shouted at last, just as Kim was moving out of the cell. 'That should be ze _Dementor_ Doomsday Device! This cannot be allowed!!'

Grimm paused, looking back at Dementor, who was squirming in his chair. 'Hey, I'm with you on this one.' he said. 'But right now, Drakken holds all the cards - unless you know some way we can stop him.'

Kim could hear Dementor's teeth grinding as he gnashed them. 'There..._ might_ be a way.' he said at last. 'I would need to go over my old notes to make sure...'

'We can have them delivered, under prison supervision of course.' said Grimm. 'And you understand the arrangement depends on whether your information is useful.'

'Very well, Herr Probable.' said Dementor with a faint smile. 'I will settle for parole instead of ze battle-suit, if I have your word that you will do to his Jammer what _she_ did to mine!'

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Kim did indeed voice objection to the Warden, but it seemed like the deal was being arranged despite her protests. The Warden already had a sheaf of documents he was flipping through when she went to his office, and she was shocked to see that Leigh Gality was already there.

'I'm sorry Ms. Possible,' said the Warden. 'But these papers seem to be in order. If Dementor agrees to the terms and fills his obligations, he'll be free to go.'

'That will, of course, be subject to review once he has supplied us with the requisite information.' said Leigh, adjusting her glasses. 'But as the charges against Professor Dementor amount to little more than _attempted _theft and _attempted_ assault, I see no reason why he shouldn't comply.'

'He blew up my bedroom closet and tried to lower me and Ron into molten lava!' Kim said angrily. 'And don't tell me there aren't any witnesses for _that_!'

'Ms. Possible - I remind you that your cousin Larry admitted _he_ was the one who 'blew up' your room.' said Leigh, shaking her head. 'He has also stated that the entire incident was a phony science fiction scenario arranged by you in advance as a themed birthday party - and that no one was ever in any danger. Unless you want to _contradict_ him and say it was real...'

Kim glared as she remembered that she had already agreed to her father's suggestion to keep the whole thing secret from Larry. Kim also noticed the Warden's eyes straying to Leigh's legs as he looked over the papers, and she muffled a sigh of exasperation.

She still felt dirty as she followed after Grimm on the winding flight back to Riddleton, as if she was the one who had arranged the deal. Grimm's words over the speakers of the Sloth were of no comfort. 'Relax.' he said, 'If his advice turns out to be a dud, you can blame me. If it helps us defeat Monkey Fist, you can take the credit. Either way, you come up roses.'

_**Part II: Best Suited**_

When they got back to Riddleton it was drawing towards the evening. Kim went to Rhonda's room, and while putting away the things she'd taken with her on the trip to the prison, she noticed something that was _not_ in her bags. At once, she raced downstairs to catch Grimm before he left.

'Where is it?' she snarled.

'Where's what?' he answered, looking infuriatingly clueless.

'My battle-suit!' she said. 'It's not upstairs with my other things! Did you sell it to Dementor already? Even after all that talk about making a deal, you couldn't wait to give him exactly what he wanted....'

'_Chill_!' Grimm barked. 'It's at Jade's place. Didn't I say it needed fixing? I just didn't want to wait ten years for you to remember. Wade and Jade are working on it. I was just on my way over to check. You can come along if you don't _believe_ me.'

Before long, they had been buzzed through the Omo-sa's gate and were trooping up to the house. Kim hadn't seen it before and was thinking it looked pretty cool. Monique, Enrique, Rufus and Rueful were following them as well - Monique because she wanted to stick with Kim, and Enrique because he wanted to stick with Monique.

There was a brief awkward moment when they entered the house. Mr. Omo-sa let out a low growl before Kim could take one step over the threshold, and he pointed at a caddy containing several slipper-like shoes.

She took the hint at once and swapped her shoes with the slippers, while everyone else did the same. Grimm and Enrique seemed to be familiar with Mr. Omo-sa's quirks and had changed shoes at once. After they were all in slippers, Mr. Omo-sa nodded in greeting.

'She is in her workroom, Probable-san.' he said in his low grating voice. 'I trust you know the way there, and the rules of conduct within my house.'

'Dōmo arigatō, Omo-sa san.' Grimm answered with a bow. He waited until after Mr. Omo-sa's returning bow, then started down the gleaming corridors. Kim and the others followed him through a number of hallways until he opened a door. The moment the door was open, Kim saw a series of sparking flashes, and heard electrical buzzing noises.

They followed Grimm, and Kim thought for a moment that they'd somehow wound up inside one of the Go City R&D labs. The same kinds of electronic equipment, tools and other supplies were there. On a large table in the center of the room, Kim saw her battle-suit laid out. Jade was bent over the table and was jabbing the suit with some kind of sophisticated welding prod. Wade was circling the table, looking at every move she made. Both of them were wearing white coats and had goggles on, making them look like young versions of Mr. Matter.

Jade paused and looked up. 'Yo, G-Man!' she said. 'About time you showed up! If you can just throw out the excess _baggage_,' she nodded her head towards Wade, 'Then maybe I can make some headway here!'

'Not ready yet?' said Grimm, looking down as the suit emitted a bright spark from the band around the shoulder-line.

'Are you kidding?' said Jade. 'Gonna be a dog's age with this one...' She held her welder to the sparking area at the shoulder and started bearing down, causing even more sparks to fly.

Wade was pulling his hair. 'What are you _doing_?' he yelled, seeing the alterations Jade was making to the nano-circuitry in the battle-suit.

Jade answered impatiently. 'I'm _fixing_ this technological mish-mash you call your invention!' she growled.

'You call this hatchet job _fixing_?' he shouted.

Jade looked up, her magnifying goggles slipping down her face. 'Hatchet _this_, you no-talent....' she started, but Grimm broke in.

_'Jade_! Don't argue - explain.' he said.

Jade clenched her fists and sighed, looking up as if pleading to higher powers for patience. She looked back down with a horrible expression of forced politeness, gritting her teeth as she spoke. 'The _reason_ your battle-suit keeps malfunctioning,' she started, 'Is because all the systems, the shield generator, the hand module, the booster soles, the healing mechanisms, are all linked to the same power generating protocol. The nano-circuits _all_ get the same activation triggers whenever _one_ function is turned on, and the filters couldn't always block the signals to the other systems in the suit. It was random and haphazard, but that was why sometimes the shield would turn on after using the hand module, or the healing mechanism would trigger the cloak or....'

Wade fought to break in. 'But the nano-circuits all depend on being interconnected to a single power source for the self-repair to work!' he said. 'Without power it's just a suit...'

'You have to _split_ the power needs to different parts of the suit to keep the activation signals from interfering with the...' Jade shouted.

'The _entire_ suit still needs a single power source to maintain the integrity of the...'

'Yes, but the _single_ power source has to be routed through _different_ energy conduits which serve as separate power sources, each with it's own set of blocks and failsafes which stop the aberrant activation signals which the nano-circuits interpret as....'

'But you'd need to boost the ability of the nano-circuitry to recognize and react to different stimulation! The only material that's durable enough and sensitive enough would be depleted trydiplatinum tungsten poly-alloy!'

'Duh!'

'And to get it you'd need high government or _criminal _connections!'

'_Duh_!'

'Plus circuits made from that stuff don't _exist_ yet! Top scientists are still working on...'

'Dementor did it! So did Zorpox! How do you think he powered the Mega Synaptic Transducer from an _abandoned_ warehouse? How do you think the Bond-O balls sustain their adhesive effect without...'

'Zorpox didn't _have_ any trydiplatinum tungsten!'

'_We_ did!'

'That's _impossible_!'

'So the battle-suit _we've_ got is just imaginary? The fact that it _works_ without any of the glitches _your _suit has is just a coincidence?'

'But the experiments needed to solve the equations and test the results would be...'

'_Illegal_? Maybe if you, Drakken and Dementor put your heads together...'

'They're _criminals_!'

'They're forward-thinking geniuses who just need....'

'A good, long stay in Cell Block D!'

By that time they were almost nose to nose, shouting at each other. Kim felt she should intervene, but their exchange was somewhat hypnotic.

'You unethical... risk-taking...'

'Goody-two-shoes... know-it-all...'

'Mad scientist hobnobbing....'

'Egghead apple-polishing...'

'_jerk!'_ they both finished, and at last they fell silent, either out of insults or out of breath.

Then without warning, Wade put both his hands on her shoulders and kissed her on the lips. Grimm raised an eyebrow and Monique flinched at the memory of the Valentine's day incident. Enrique sighed. 'Ah, _el amor de los que odian uno al otro....' _he said softly.

Jade's eyes opened as wide as dinner plates as Wade leaned back, and she stood still in shock for a few seconds, looking dumbfounded. Then her hand flashed out and there was a loud _smack_. Wade was rubbing his cheek, one eye squinched shut.

'_What the heck was that?'_ Jade screeched.

Wade looked embarrassed. 'It's... kinda _traditional_.' he said sheepishly. 'You know how it is in the movies - two rivals who respect each other get into an argument about something, they yell a lot, and then... they _kiss_.'

Jade shook her head. 'I donno what kinda movies you been watching, but leave me _out_ of them!' she said angrily.

'All right, sorry!' Wade said, backing away. 'Forget about it...'

'Did shut her up, though.' said Monique quietly to Kim.

'Anyhoo,' Jade said, running her hand over her forehead, 'Adding separate power sources will solve your activation glitches. When Zorpox made Grimm's battle-suit, it eventually showed the same glitches as your suit. It took some doing, but I solved the problem by adding smaller power sources, each one linked to the main power source. The failsafes protect the different functions of the suit so they don't all activate when one is triggered.'

She brought up a scan of the battle-suit on the large screen, with different sections of the suit blinking on and off. 'I spread the different power sources to five different locations - the left and right gloves, the left and right boots, and the belt. Each one also serves as emergency backup in case the main power gives out.'

'How long before it's ready?' Grimm said, 'Having one out of commission could hurt us if Maze makes a move.'

'Well it's not like screwing in a light bulb.' said Jade. 'This is nano-circuitry we're talking about - it'll take time...'

'But when you're done, the suit will work without glitching up?' Kim said.

'It _should_.' said Jade. 'Like I said, that's how we fixed Grimm's suit.'

'Wade?' she said, 'How about a second out in the hall?'

Wade looked mutinous, but followed after Kim as she went back out the door.

Jade was staring after them, looking both befuddled and angry. 'That dork steals a kiss from me and you're just letting it slide? We're both underage, ya know!' she said, turning to Grimm.

Grimm was looking shrewdly at her. 'Sorry, but I couldn't help noticing,' he said quietly. 'You didn't slap him until after he'd _stopped_ kissing you.'

Jade's face turned beet red, her eyelids twitching. 'I was...' she sputtered, 'He.... It... I wasn't _expecting_ it!'

'Are you gonna be OK alone with him working on the suit?' he said, and there was a trace of playful smugness in his voice.

Jade's face was so red by this time, she actually pulled her goggles back down to cover her eyes. 'Shut... _up_...!' she squealed. 'Like I'd fall for a guy like _him_... I'm not falling for anyone - we're both too young!!'

'I told him that when he was trying to date me.' said Monique, rather enjoying Jade's embarrassment. 'Didn't do much good - the boy's a romantic. He even made a Cupid ray...'

Jade's mouth fell open. 'He... designed a _Cupid ray_?' she screamed. Then without another word she dashed to a section of the wall which had a number of compartments and shelves. She pulled open a large drawer with the words _'Projects in Progress' _labeled on it, and fished out a device that looked almost exactly like Wade's Cupid ray.

Everyone smiled faintly as Jade threw it on the floor and began stamping on it with her sandaled feet.

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Once they were in the hall, Kim closed the door behind her and turned to see Wade leaning against the wall looking sulky. 'You're not gonna go _along_ with this, are you?' he said.

'Help her out as much as you can, Wade.' said Kim.

Wade sputtered, pointing back and forth between Kim and the door. 'But if this doesn't work, the suit will be totally ruined!' he said.

'I know,' she answered. 'But if it comes to that, I'll get by without it. It's just that if I _am_ using it - I need to be sure it won't flake out on me again. Besides,' she said, smiling faintly and lowering her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. 'If it _does_ fail, you'll be able to say '_I told you so'_ to Jade.'

A smile flickered briefly across Wade's resentful frown. 'Well... I guess that would be nice.' he said, still sounding sullen.

Kim couldn't resist asking. 'Wade - why _did _you kiss her?'

For once, Wade looked baffled. 'I have no idea.' he said. 'It's just.... I've never met anyone like her before. She's an annoying, bossy, know-it-all tomboy who just won't shut up, and she drives me _nuts_ and... she's so free-spirited and... _wild_.'

'She's the _bad_ _girl_.' Kim said knowingly.

'Yeah...' said Wade, and a wistful look passed over his eyes, but then he shook his head as if trying to clear it of something unpleasant.

'Look Wade - I totally understand the bad-boy/girl thing, but she's not just the bad girl - she the _evil_ bad girl. And once this sitch with Ron and Monkey Fist is over... I just don't think it's a good idea to be crushing on her.'

'I'm not _crushing_!' said Wade, flushing red. 'It was just a... momentary lapse brought on by fatigue.'

'Yeah,' said Kim with a faint smile. 'And I _wasn't_ jelling over Yori.'

Wade glanced back nervously at Jade's lab. 'OK... I hear you.' he said. 'I'll just focus on the suit and try to minimize the damage she does.'

'Please and thank you.'

Wade was shaking his head. 'I hope this is worth the risk.' he said.

'I'm not in synch with the sitch either.' Kim said. 'But Ron's been gone nearly three weeks now. When I think about him trapped wherever he is... He must be scared out of his mind...'

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_In the spirit world, Ron and Rhonda were both doing the 'Breakfast Club' table dance, and both of them were singing. Ron was rolling out verses to "Naked Mole Rap", while Rhonda sang counterpoint with "Long-Tailed Weasel Jam". The two songs blended together fairly well, and Ron couldn't help thinking that if Rhonda had been helping him out, he might have gotten an "A" on the assignment from Mr. Barkin._

_'So I heard Smarty-Mart was havin' a sale...'__  
'On a predatory mammal with a furry brown tail!'  
'It seemed to me this could be a solution,  
the perfect pet for my dad's sensitive constitution!'_

_  
'So the manager told me his Latin name - he said it's Mustela frenata!  
I said it doesn't mattah!'  
'Handed him to me, said, "Be careful don't drop it,  
and do you want this cage?" No, I'll keep him in my pocket!'_

_  
'Got a sparkle in his eye and a smile on his face!  
Ev'rybody do the long-tailed weasel jam!'  
'Come on y'all - let the girlies sing!  
Listen to the Naked Mole Rap!'_

_And they both laughed heartily as they finished the song, Rhonda letting out another loud snort._

_**Part III: The Ubergolem**_

Monkey Fist flexed his left hand, looking appraisingly at the thick band of steel that now looped around it, covering and protecting the _emet_ symbols below his knuckles. It wasn't elegant or pretty, but it was functional.

Then he looked up at the Ubergolem. High above on some scaffolding, Drakken was supervising a team of golems as they welded a much larger and thicker metal band around the left hand of the statue. The Hebrew characters on the Ubergolem which spelled out _emet_ were each nearly as large as a human being, but they disappeared from view as the other golems bent and forced the metal into place. Soon Shegolem was welding the band closed, the green light from her glow sparked and glittered in the darkness of the cavern as she fused the metal with fire.

Drakken looked relieved as he gingerly climbed down the scaffolding and set himself firmly on the ground. 'I didn't sign on to do metallurgy.' said Drakken, watching nervously as the golems and Shegolem simply let themselves fall to the cavern floor. They landed with echoing booms, only to get up and return to their labors without hesitation.

'You'll soon be able to return to working on the Jammer.' said Monkey Fist, looking up and admiring the Ubergolem. 'In fact, we should be able to hit several birds with this very large stone.' He carefully activated the communicator he held. '_Sskipoyiwa_. The symbols are protected - now let us see the results of _your_ labor.'

From inside the Immersion Pod that served as the control system for the mini-UAJ, Maze nodded. He still didn't like being inside the machine, but the feeling of raw power it brought him when using it... He concentrated, focusing his will into the shadows of the cavern, until he sensed the patch of blackness within the cavity in the eye of the Ubergolem. He chanted, letting his mind and awareness sink into the shadows, bending them to his will...

And then he was staring out from the eye - and he _was_ the Ubergolem. His limbs felt suddenly very heavy, but he raised his arms, and flexed his fingers. His arms were now thick and stony, and a metal band was around his left hand...

Drakken cringed as the Ubergolem suddenly came alive. It seemed to be looking at it's hands, inspecting itself, and turning this way and that to examine it's surroundings. Even these slight movements shattered and crumbled the network of scaffolds, and it bumped the cavern wall behind it, sending a shower of rocks and boulders crashing and tumbling to the ground.

'_Easy_, Maze.' said Monkey Fist into the communicator, though he was smiling. 'The good doctor could be squashed if you move around too much.'

'It's _amazing_...' said Maze, and Monkey Fist saw a distant and entranced expression on his face. His voice was similarly dream-like. 'I can _see_ you below me like insects...'

'Hey!' said Drakken, but Monkey Fist waved him to silence.

'We're returning to the main cavern.' he said. 'Once we have checked to make sure the Jammer is set and timed for our target, you will need to open a shadow passage through which we can travel.'

'Your presence will not be needed.' said Maze, his voice still sounding faraway. 'I can _feel_ the power and strength of this golem. Even if _Mi'kksiistsikomma _and_ Otaatoyiwa _try to interfere_, _they will be no match for me!'

'Nevertheless, we _will_ be following you to our target.' said Monkey Fist. 'After all, in Middleton you can't be too careful.' By this time he and Drakken had reached the computers connected to the Jammer and the immersion pod. Drakken was checking various screens, making adjustments and consulting his own communicator.

'We'll be able to take control of the satellite very soon.' said Drakken, and Monkey Fist nodded as he went up to the Immersion Pod to look in on Maze.

'Will you be able maintain control?' said Monkey Fist through the glass. 'Much of this operation depends on you. To make a shadow passage that will allow for objects this large...'

'If by doing this, I can make my enemies suffer, then yes.' said Maze with a dark stare, 'So long as this 'Middleton' remains covered by nightfall, I will endure.'

'Very well then.' said Monkey Fist. 'But measure your efforts and pace yourself - depending on how things go, we may need you to provide a swift escape.'

'It is _they_ who will need to escape from me.' said Maze, shaking his head.

'We shall see.' said Monkey Fist, and turned back to Drakken. 'Has the sun fallen in Middleton?'

'Yes,' said Drakken, who was tapping his fingers on the stone table. 'It happened four minutes ago, but what does that matter?'

'Because at night, his powers are strongest.' said Monkey Fist, nodding towards the Immersion Pod. 'With darkness falling, he will need less effort to control his shadows.' Drakken's watch beeped, a high pitched sound that carried through the caverns.

'Ah, I believe it's time.' said Monkey Fist. 'Activate the mini-jammer and set it so our satellite targets Middleton.'

'That giant statue is too big!' Drakken protested. 'Putting that much power through the satellite will allow Possible's hacker to detect it!' Drakken protested. 'They could guess where you're going like they did before...'

'That's quite all right.' said Monkey Fist, with a shrewd smile. 'This time - we _want_ them to know where we're striking.'

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Wade was grimacing as he watched Jade modify the bands around the forearms of Kim's battle-suit, and add new components to the boots. Her goggles were set to maximum magnification as she worked with a pair of instruments that looked as fine as needles, but which emitted faint sparks, so small they could hardly be seen.

But they both started as a red alarm light started blinking along with a loud buzzer. 'Oh _crud_.' Wade said, shaking his head and racing out towards the guest house.

The rest of the group had collected their shoes and left the Omo-sa house, heading down the driveway path towards the gate. Both Kim and Grimm's communicators went off at the same time, and simultaneously, they both held them up and said, 'What's the sitch?'

'They're using the Jammer!' said Wade's voice, coming from both communicators and sounding frantic.

Kim felt a jolt of excitement. 'So soon?' she said. She had gotten rather used to the long stretches of time between when Monkey Fist used the mini-UAJ on previous occasions.

'About ten minutes ago, a satellite jumped out of it's normal control frequencies and it's broadcasting an aberrant signal.' Wade answered. 'It's them, I'm sure of it.'

'Where are they hitting?' said Kim, while Grimm said nothing, his face scowling.

'The signal's stronger this time...' said Wade, typing fast. 'It's over the western hemisphere... targeting somewhere in the American Midwest...'

Wade's face jumped up sharply. 'Kim - I think they're targeting Middleton.'

Wade's image went into split screen and Jade, still wearing her goggles and still welding with one hand, popped onto the screen. 'News channels just mobilized with a special bulletin.' she said. 'Check _this _out guys...'

Both Wade and Jade disappeared and Kim recognized the reporter Summer Gale from Middleton News. She was standing outside and crowds of people were racing down the sidewalks behind her as if running away from something.

'...no one has been able to determine how it got here, or where it came from. But a sixty-foot tall statue has been spotted, cutting a destructive path through the city. Luckily, it seems to have started it's rampage near the outskirts of town in the industrial district and no casualties have yet been reported. But the monster is making it's way towards the heart of Middleton. Residents are urged to evacuate towards the south of the city as quickly as they can, following these routes...'

Monique looked stunned. 'A... giant _golem_?' she said. 'I thought they were making another jammer thingy!'

'So did I...' Kim said, her voice nearly a whisper.

On the screen, Summer Gale held a hand to her earpiece. 'I've just been informed that our mobile camera unit has sighted the monster - going to live feed as quickly as possible...'

And the scene cut to a camera which was being held very shakily. Armored jeeps were speeding down a street, carrying uniformed soldiers, all fully armed. A few larger vehicles were among the convoy. Even though the evening had fallen and there wasn't much light, Kim recognized the part of town which was being shown. The buildings were lower, and it was only about a mile or two away from the mall and Bueno Nacho.

Summer's voice was still talking. 'As we can see, Police and National Guard units have been mobilized to intercept and stop the monster. Of course, Middleton is no stranger to such attacks, having been rescued from giant dinosaurs and mutant roach invasions by teen heroine, Kim Possible...'

But her voice fell silent as a vast _shape_, totally black against the darkening sky, leaned slowly into view around one of the taller buildings. The camera upended crazily as a soldier's hand pushed into it, along with the shout of a gruff voice. 'Get out of here - get out of here right _now_..!' Then there was a burst of static and the picture was lost.

There was dead silence for a moment as Kim lowered her Kimmunicator. 'Monique - suit up and meet me at the Sloth.' she said firmly.

'Shotgun!' said Enrique, smiling eagerly at Monique as if he hadn't seen the news report.

But Grimm darted in front of the gate and blocked the way out. 'What do you think you're doing?'

'I'm going back.' Kim said.

'Don't be an idiot!' Grimm said angrily, 'Can't you tell it's a setup?'

'Out of my way, Probable!' Kim snarled.

'They're doing this to _lure_ you there!' he shouted, 'They've already got a satellite hijacked! The minute you show your face, they could zap a whole city block and turn you to stone along with everyone else!'

'That's my home - my _family _lives there! I can't just sit back and watch!'

'And _they_ know it!' Grimm shouted, 'Which is why you can't go...!'

'It's why I _have_ to go!' Kim shouted back.

'Straight up!' said Monique. 'Like I'm gonna let my family get flattened by their giant rock boy!'

'If you do this, I'm not coming with you!' Grimm said, shaking his head. 'I'm _not _following you into a trap! It would mean throwing away everything we've fought for up to now!'

'What _have_ we fought for up to now?' Kim shouted back. 'To find Monkey Fist and Maze? Are they found? To bring back Rhonda and Ron? _Are_ they back?'

'Who's gonna bring them back if we both wind up as golems?' Grimm yelled.

'Stay then.' Kim said coldly. 'It's not _your_ home and family that are in danger. Looks like _you'll_ be the one hiding under the bed.'

'Grow up, Possible.' Grimm said angrily. 'You can only win if you pick the right battles. If we keep our cool and stay out of this, we'll eventually find a way to track them down. But if you go there, you'll be painting a bulls-eye on your face! How are you planning to stop a giant golem anyway?'

'We'll never know until we _try_.' Kim answered.

'Your battle-suit isn't even fixed yet!' Grimm said. 'You wouldn't stand a chance.'

Kim darted around him and out of the gate. 'Since you're not going,' she said, 'I'll need to borrow something from _your_ place.'

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A few minutes later, Kim stepped out a bathroom at the Probable house, where she had quickly changed. She now wore Grimm's black suit with glowing orange bands. Everyone stared at her. The nano-technology had form-fitted the suit to her size and frame, just like hers had for Ron and for Larry when they had worn it. But the effect on Kim was more slenderizing, lean and simply more _dangerous_ looking.

'Difference between you and me is - I make this look _good_.' said Kim, staring at Grimm.

'Seconded.' said Lynn and Mim, who were standing there and smiling. Grimm sent a withering glare at both of them. 'What?' Lynn said, shrugging, 'She _does_.'

'Black's not really your color, girlfriend.' said Monique, but she was smiling. 'Still... _wow_.'

'Thirded...' said Enrique, raising his hand with a dreamy expression.

Grimm sighed and shook his head. 'You're making a mistake.' he said. 'This is playing right into their hands...'

'We'll see.' Kim said defiantly. 'I've taken out lairs and doomsday machines before.' She strode swiftly to the front door and left, with Monique and Rufus close behind her. Enrique started after them.

'What, _you're_ going too?' said Grimm. 'That's a bit much just to try and impress Monique - your life could be on the line!'

Enrique shrugged. 'Senorita Possible is a strange girl, Senor Grimm.' he said. 'She says she can do anything - and the more I've watched her and her friends, the more I believe she is not merely boasting. Besides... they will need someone to guide them back to Riddleton later, no?' He followed them out the door, leaving Grimm standing there with his parents, sisters and Rueful.

'There won't be a 'later'.' he said quietly.

Mr. Probable was looking at him curiously. 'So you're sitting this one out, boy?' he said.

'I'm playing it _smart_.' he said, picking up a remote control and raising the volume on a big screen TV in the living room. The attack on Middleton was still being covered, and other news organizations were joining in.

'...so far the creature seems to be indestructible. Even several heavy artillery units with armor-piercing rounds have failed to...'

He hit the mute button and threw the remote onto the couch. 'They're toast the minute Monkey Fist sees them arriving.' Grimm said, and he turned and stormed out of the house.

Lynn and Mim were tapping their feet. 'Maybe we should...' Mim said,

'..change the bands on his suit to _yellow_.' said Lynn.

'Honey,' said Mrs. Probable, standing beside him and resting her hand on his shoulder, 'I know there's no one paying him this time - but I thought he brought those people out here to help him find Rhonda. Shouldn't he be going with them?'

'Yes, he _should_.' said Mr. Probable. 'But if he's got his mind made up, then yelling at him won't change it.' He shrugged, glancing back at the TV. 'I'd better go to the office.' he said, squeezing his wife's hand. 'The Army is going to want a conference about _this_...'

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Maze could not surpress a grim smile. He was nowhere near Middleton - he was safely ensconced within the Immersion Pod at their hidden lair. But he _felt_ like he was truly in Middleton as he controlled the Ubergolem, lumbering from place to place at will, knocking down buildings, crushing cars beneath his feet and shrugging off gunfire from the National Guard vehicles as if they were less than gnats.

He kept an eye on the metal strip wrapped around his left hand, checking it to make sure it was still intact. So far everything was exceeding his wildest expectations. The military vehicles laid periodic ambushes, but their attacks had been unable to even slow him down, and they would flee when he approached, only to regroup and try again somewhere else.

He chuckled at their feeble efforts. He was truly invincible - and the white man would suffer the destruction they so richly deserved by his hands. He would lay waste to the city, and before the dawn came, he would retreat to the lair and select another place to strike. He didn't even care that Monkey Fist and Drakken had left him the moment after their arrival, claiming they had an errand to run within the city. Indeed, he wondered if the rest of the plan was even necessary, and whether or not he already had all the tools he needed at his disposal. What could _Mi'kksiistsikomma _and_ Otaatoyiwa _possibly do to stop him? They were nothing - less than nothing - a pair of insolent children unworthy of his notice.

As another group of jeeps and tanks scattered at his approach, he turned his eye to the taller buildings some distance away. Like most of the white man's creations, the sight of them offended him. They were unnatural blots on what should have been a pristine landscape. But no matter - soon he would grind them to powder, and he plodded heavily down a street towards the center of town, ignoring the din and the panic that surrounded him...

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_Ron and Rhonda shared a vision of Kim and the others speeding back towards Middleton in the Sloth. Their eyes saw the car and it's occupants as a hazy, but distinguishable anchor amid a world which seemed to be spinning by at great speed._

_Kim had used the sub-orbital jets once Enrique had guided them outside of Riddleton to a point where their GPS system started working again. She didn't like going sub-orbital since it often put NORAD on alert if they spotted her, but the thought of a giant golem tearing Middleton apart, and maybe getting close to her neighborhood, her family and friends...._

_'Bad Monkey!' said Ron. 'Going after Bueno Nacho like that? I thought the other villains of the world learned better when Drakken got caught after he tried it!'_

_Rhonda was looking around wildly. 'Where's Grimm?' she said, and took a closer look at Kim. 'And... why is Kim wearing my BF's battle-suit?'_

_'Looks nice on her...' Ron said, a lopsided smile on his face as he looked her over._

_'Shut up!' said Rhonda, but Ron's vision seemed totally focused on Kim as he anxiously watched their progress. Rhonda kept looking around for a sight of Grimm, or the bike, but she couldn't see either. She tried to calm herself, to remember all the things Ron had drilled into her about 'good vibrations'. And she concentrated, trying to see Grimm, to let her spirit find him..._

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Grimm entered the grove behind Rhonda's house, sitting down in front of the fire pit and burying his head in his hands. His communicator was beeping. He shut it off and threw it across the ground. What good would talking to Jade do? What could she say except to break the news that Kim had been defeated? Swallowed up in his frustration and anger, he lost track of how long he was actually there. The evening deepened, and darkness fell. An unnatural quiet stole through the glade, so deep that Grimm's own thoughts seemed like shouting in his head.

_'Stupid idiots...'_ he thought, _'They'll be flattened - or enslaved. No amount of attitude can beat the odds they're walking into.' _ He shook his head helplessly. _'I'll be the only one left before this is over...'_

_And Rhonda could see him plainly. Somehow, he seemed clearer and much more 'solid' than ever. She didn't dare hope that he could hear her, but seeing his turmoil, she couldn't help whispering his name._

And Grimm raised his head, looking next to him and staring at the shimmering phantom of Rhonda's form. In the darkness of the grove, she seemed to glow with a blue light. He was sure he was dreaming. He didn't remember nodding off, or when she had appeared, but somehow he was not surprised to see her. It was like they had arranged to meet there beforehand. Half miserable, half overjoyed, he reached for her hand but was unable to touch her.

'_Hey, GP.'_ she said, holding her hand to his so they merged in the air between them.

Grimm laughed bitterly. 'So Fate sneaks in another kick while I'm down.' he said. 'I get to see you - just before Maze and Monkey Fist win and take you away for good.'

Rhonda shook her head. There was a feeling inside her that Grimm was wrong about this, but she didn't know how to express it. _'How can you be sure?'_ she said.

Grimm wanted to look away, but after so long without seeing Rhonda, he kept his eyes fixed on her. 'There's no bones about it.' he said. 'They don't stand a chance against that monster golem, and even if they did, Monkey Fist will be waiting in the wings to turn them to stone - and who will save them when it happens?'

Rhonda was kneeling down beside him, a tear beading in her eye._ 'Grimm, please - you can save them now!' _she said.

'I.. can't do it.' he said, his teeth gritted. 'It goes against all the training I've ever had...'

_'Grimm...' _Rhonda said. _ 'You have to go... You need to be there.'_

'Why?' he said, agonizing. 'It's a trap - you have to know it's a trap! What good will it do to just walk blindly into it?'

_'I can't explain it, Grimm.'_ Rhonda said. _'I don't know what's going to happen. All I know is... I feel like things will be OK if you're there. And if you're not there... everything you're afraid of will actually happen...'_

Grimm felt a tear in his own eye. 'I want to believe...' he whispered. 'But I need a place to start...'

_'Then believe in me.' _said Rhonda.

Even as she spoke, Grimm saw her fade from sight. The grove was as silent and dark as if nothing had happened. He blinked, his head jerking up. He whirled, looking around, unsure if he had been asleep or not. Rueful was there, looking at him with a soft trill. Everything was still quiet - yet he could feel a great tension in the air. His eye fell on the communicator, and he stared at it for some time, his eye fixing on a small red light that was blinking among it's many buttons...

_**Part IV: Rumble in Middleton**_

Kim soared over Middleton in the Sloth. In the darkness of the night, she couldn't see much. But she did spot a glowing orange colored cloud near the ground that looked like a building on fire.

'A lot of the city's lights are out, Wade.' Kim said. 'How will we land safely?'

'Hit the button marked "NV" on the dashboard keypad.' Wade answered with a smile. 'It'll change the view through the front windshield to night vision.'

Kim obeyed, and immediately the inky blues and blacks from the front were replaced with glowing greens and she could see they were nearly down to the level of the taller skyscrapers. She quickly made her descent and the Sloth came to a screeching halt outside of Costington Plaza.

Everyone quickly got out, including Enrique, who looked like he was no longer sure about being there. Kim looked back and forth up the streets, but all seemed undamaged, though deserted and eerily quiet. She brought up her Kimmunicator. 'Wade - I'm not seeing anything.' she said. 'Where is it?'

'Tracking local seismic activity,' said Wade, typing at his keyboard. 'Any tremors will probably be the golem...'

But even then, Monique felt the concrete vibrating beneath her shoes, and heard a dull, booming _thump_. It happened several more times until Kim looked down the street.

'Wade....' she said quietly. '...never mind.'

Monique looked up. The building across the block exploded outwards, the edifice disappearing in a cloud of crumbling stone and raining girders. Something huge was striding through the debris. Her mouth fell open and her arms fell nerveless to her sides. She was looking up at a golem, nearly sixty feet tall. It plowed through the wreckage of the building as if it weren't even there, clouds of gray dust billowing in its wake.

It was dull gray and hulking, with arms and legs that were nearly as thick around as it's body. It's toeless feet sent deafening shockwaves blasting across her ears with every step as it thundered across the street. It's stubby, four-fingered hands flexed slowly. It's roundish head had no face, no features to speak of, except for a dark, hollow depression in the center like a slitted black eye.

'Well, you know what they say,' said Enrique, though his voice was trembling, 'The bigger they are...'

The golem began smashing through another building, a shower of debris flying in all directions.

'...the_ stronger_ they are!' Enrique finished, backing away hastily.

Kim paused, wondering how best to approach the sitch. 'Wade...' she said, holding up her Kimmunicator, 'Tell me you've got something!'

On the tiny screen, Wade looked on the verge of panic. 'There's nothing I can _do_, Kim!' he said. 'This isn't anything like the robot Drakken made out of Nakatomi's assembly line - there's no emitter to shut down or computers to override! This thing is literally made of _stone_!'

'I'm going in,' she said. 'Wade, see if you can get the tanks and the jeeps to back off - I don't want to get shot at while I'm working!'

'On it!' Wade said briskly.

'So what do you need from us?' Monique said quickly.

'For now, get any people who are still hanging around out of the way!' Kim shouted, fighting to make her voice heard over the crashing noise of falling debris. 'I'll be back soon!'

_'I hope...'_ Monique thought, watching Kim running towards the giant stone behemoth.

Kim looked up at the golem and saw a metal band wrapped around it's left hand. From the distance it seemed small, but she knew based on the golem's height that the band was at least four feet wide and several inches thick. The diamond-tipped stylus in her hip pouch seemed as light and useless as a toothpick by comparison. 'Wade, what'll it take to get that band off? Until it's down, anything the army tries would be a waste of ammo.'

'Check your backpack.' said Jade's voice.

Kim halted and fished out something that looked like a sealed package with a couple of knobs on the front and a strange metallic base. 'What's this?' she asked. 'And where's my geometry homework...?'

'They're demolitions packs.' said Jade. 'Shaped charges with a self-adhesive base. I slipped them in before you left - I figured if you were stupid enough to go up against this thing, you'd need something better than Wade's little EMP scrambler.'

'You had me carrying _bombs_ around?' Kim started angrily.

'They're perfectly safe until you activate the timer.' Jade fired back. 'What - do you wish I'd packed you some nice fluffy marshmallows instead - so you can toast s'mores while the golem mashes your city flat?'

'Fine, how do they work?' Kim said.

'Turn the knob on the right until it clicks to activate the adhesive.' Jade said. 'Ditto for the knob on the left to activate the timer. After the click, you got fifteen seconds to vamoose.'

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Dr. Drakken held a small portable TV screen in front of him, letting out a low whistle as he watched the tanks and jeeps retreating from the Ubergolem. 'I could have done that!' he said at last. 'If Kim Possible hadn't destroyed my giant robot!'

'Oh _please_.' said Monkey Fist, shaking his head. 'You and I both know her hacker friend shut it down before it could do any real damage. But with an elemental like the Ubergolem, none of her usual tricks will work.'

Drakken sniffed. 'You really think this may-zee character will _defeat_ Kim Possible with that oversized clunker?'

'It's _mah-zay_, and frankly - no. I don't think he will.' said Monkey Fist. 'But he had a mind to use the Ubergolem, and there was no talking him out of it. So we may as well make use of the distraction.' He stood in the midst of a number of golems. They were all milling around in a vast room filled with parts and equipment, taking down boxes and crates. There was a bucket-line of golems carrying the boxes out and stacking them inside a semi truck parked in the loading dock. 'We must finish our raid and return to the rendezvous point before anyone is the wiser. Is everything you need here?'

'Yes, yes!' Drakken said. 'Assuming we can get away without interference, these supplies should be enough to finish the project.'

'Very good.' said Monkey Fist, checking out of one of the windows. 'The attack seems to have drawn away the police and the National Guard. The Middleton Space Center was mostly abandoned...'

'Good thing, too.' Drakken muttered. 'The last thing I need after a long day is to run into my lippy college roommate!'

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It was a trickier business that Kim had thought it would be. The Ubergolem kept crashing through things, making it hard for her to find an opening where she could use her grappling line without having to worry about being swept into a hailstorm of falling debris. But at last she saw a chance as the golem turned to cross the street again.

Her grappling hook clamped onto the golem's arm and she soared up nearly forty feet, clinging to the rough stone surface. She was on the forearm of the golem, and saw the hand, a short crawling distance away.

But she gasped as the Ubergolem began moving the arm to take a swipe at some telephone poles and high-voltage wires. She raised her shield and braced herself...

And Maze noticed the tiny flare of orange light as he snapped and tore his way through the sparking wires. He shifted his gaze from the line of buildings he had been making towards, and spied Kim, clinging to his arm like an insect. _'Fool...' _ he thought, his smile broadening, '_..Maokiiwa said you would come...'_ He rolled his left arm, and brought his right hand crashing down towards her.

'Kim - _bail_!' Wade shouted, 'The shield can't deflect that much mass!'

Kim slid down the arm until she was beneath it and heard a deafening crash as the golem swatted. She was forced to swing down to the rooftop of a nearby building when the golem slid it's right hand smoothly across the surface of the left arm in a brushing motion that would have pulverized a tank.

She stared as she regained her feet - the golem's motions were entirely too organic - it's reactions too fluid. Despite it's bulk, It had a degree of awareness and control over itself that she had never seen before in something so large. Drakken's robots were functional, but they still needed to be piloted, and had a mechanical stiffness that made their movements predictable. Even the smaller golems had seemed more zombie-like than this giant version. Even now it seemed to be staring at her, a dark chill lurking in the sunken pit of it's eye socket.

It reached down and picked up a car, sending it flying at her with an almost casual toss. She swung down to street level and heard the twisting of metal and shattering of glass as the car impacted on the roof.

Another car was tumbling through the air towards her and she rolled, activating her shield and feeling a shudder as the crude missile deflected off the edge of her protective dome. She prepared to activate stealth mode and make another try at the left hand, but paused as she saw the golem balancing on one leg, raising it's foot high.

Monique watched as the Ubergolem stamped hard. It's foot sank beneath the street surface. Fire hydrants all around erupted, spraying water as their caps were blasted off. The ground beneath the Ubergolem seemed to quiver like gelatin, and the asphalt that covered it flew up in great chunks.

She herself was knocked off her feet, flailing as Enrique caught her and Rufus hid in her hip pouch. She thought her eardrums would split from the sound.

Maze watched in satisfaction as Kim lost her balance. Even protected by her shield, the upheaval caused by the shockwave had shattered the street around and beneath her. Chunks of asphalt and other debris were piled against the tiny speck of her shield, holding her in place. He lumbered forward, reaching down...

Kim pushed away a nearly man-sized slab of asphalt and several other chunks before she felt she could lower the shield and move properly again. But as she forced away the last of the restraining rubble, she saw the Ubergolem's right hand rushing at her like a freight train...

'_Kim!!'_ Monique shouted.

Kim blinked as a white blur swept between her and the Ubergolem. It seized her, and she found herself tumbling out of the way, another wave of sound and force washing over her as the golem's hand missed and smashed into the shattered street where she had been standing.

She rolled and got to her feet, and another figure was also standing up beside her, turning slowly and looking at her.

Grimm stared at her and Kim saw he was wearing her own battle-suit. The bands were glowing blue and bright through the haze of dust that surrounded them. 'Difference between you and me is,' Grimm said, smirking, 'I make this look _evil_.'

There was a moment's pause and then they both soared up on their grapple lines as another car came crashing down towards them. 'Jade fixed it?' said Kim, as they vaulted onto the ledge of a nearby building.

'Obviously.' said Grimm, both of them skirting the ledge by running alongside it while the Ubergolem's hand smashed through the face of the building. 'She says the suit should be fine, at least for now.'

'So what changed your mind?' Kim said, both of them swinging across the street towards another building. 'I thought you said coming here was a stupid move.'

'It was.' Grimm answered, while they both rappelled down towards the street. 'But I had to come.'

'Why?' Kim said, both of them keeping their eyes on the Ubergolem as it slowly plodded towards them.

'I just _had_ to.' he growled, as if the question annoyed him.

'Thanks for clearing that up,' said Kim with a grimace. 'People might have been confused...'

They both cart wheeled to either side and the Ubergolem clapped it's palm down between them. 'Jade said you're using sap charges to try and get the armor off the golem's hand,' said Grimm, shouting to get his voice heard over the booming crash. 'How's that working out?'

'Having trouble setting the charge.' Kim answered. 'This thing's acting like it knows what we're trying to do!'

They both wound up side-by-side again as they tumbled out of the way of falling debris. 'Need a boost?' Grimm said.

'Make it a mid-air double.' Kim answered. 'Go!'

And as the Ubergolem made another swipe at them with it's right hand, they both activated their booster soles and jumped high. At the height of their arc, Grimm tumbled and extended his feet while Kim planted her own feet against his booster soles, bracing herself and staring up at her target. They pushed off against each other, activating their boosters again.

Kim catapulted to the side, sailing towards the Ubergolem's left hand while Grimm launched out his grapple line and began swinging back to the ground.

Maze was momentarily baffled by Kim's sudden change of direction in mid-air, and didn't react in time to stop her from landing on top of the knuckles which he had thought were a safe distance away from anything she might try.

Kim smoothly took another sap charge from her pack as she landed jarringly on the Ubergolem. The metal band was as thick and strong up close as she had guessed it was from a distance, but she planted the charge, activating both the adhesive and the timer simultaneously.

Then she booster jumped away again, sending out her grapple line. But the Ubergolem was pivoting, and the building she had been aiming for wheeled suddenly out of her line of fire, the hook trailing out into empty space.

But another grapple line from below twined around the end of hers, and she quickly activated the retracting winch, pulling the line taut. Grimm had hooked her line with his, and the anchor of his line gave her the time to find another building to target with the second grappler on her other hand.

Her shoulders strained as the pressure from both lines stretched her, but she managed to release her first grapple line and stop herself against the wall of the building she had aimed for. It was a rougher stop than she would have liked, but much more preferable than the plummet she would have experienced without Grimm's intervention. She landed on the shattered street beside him while he was retracting his own grapple line, looking up expectantly at the Ubergolem.

Maze had seen her plant something on the metal band, a tiny dot in his vision, but he knew that it must be some kind of weapon. And like a person trying to wipe something off, he rubbed his right hand across the left.

Kim and Grimm heard a reverberating _pop_, like a firework going off. She stared up in hope, but the band still seemed to be in place. 'No good!' Grimm shouted, watching the Ubergolem. It seemed to be inspecting the band, ensuring it was still intact. 'It deflected or damaged the charge enough to keep it from destroying the band!'

'How is it doing that?' Kim shouted back. 'None of the other golems acted like this - it's like it's alive!'

'It's Maze.' Grimm said. 'Somehow he's controlling it directly - probably through the Jammer.'

'But Dementor hasn't given us anything to block the Jammer yet!' Kim said.

Grimm stared up at the Ubergolem with a hopeless expression. 'As self-aware as the golem is, we'd need a dozen sap charges to destroy that band.' he said, 'And you're down to one. Unless we can restrain it somehow.'

'Restrain it?' she said. 'With what? We'd need a cargo plane full of Moo Goo to even slow it down! What can we do?'

Grimm was shaking his head. 'There's only one thing I _can_ do - _pray._'

Kim stared at him. 'What?' she said. But Grimm was bowing his head and chanting, the same low, muttering chant she'd heard him speaking in the trees behind her house.

_Omahkkiaayowa,  
Nitsiinihkatsimatsiiwa..._

The Ubergolem was bearing down on them again. 'If you're not fighting, then stay out of my way.' Kim said, dashing back towards the Ubergolem. She twitched to the side as the golem stooped and heaved a dump-truck sized volley of rubble towards her. Her shield deflected the barrage, and she dashed around the towering figure, looking for another chance to make a run at the left hand.

But Maze turned, following her and keeping her in his sight, making sure his left arm was blocked by the enormous bulk of his body. _'No, Mi'kksiistsikomma...'_ he thought with a grim smile, _'I will not be distracted so easily!'_

As the battle raged, Grimm knelt down by the side of the street, chanting over and over again.

_Omahkkiaayowa,  
Nitsiinihkatsimatsiiwa..._

But as in the hollow of the Bear Spirit monument, he felt nothing. There was no feeling, no answer that came to him and he ground his teeth in frustration. Why wouldn't the Great Bear Spirit answer him? He had seen Rhonda use the Great Bear's power dozens of times. _Why wouldn't he answer him?_

And from distant memory, he recalled words he'd once read and nearly forgotten. _When you pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think they shall be heard for their much speaking._

There was a blast like a thunderclap across the street and a dull, sustained rumbling. Another building was collapsing.

_Omahkkiaayowa...._

Grimm started again, but stopped. He closed his eyes, concentrating. _'Great Bear Spirit,'_ he thought, focusing with all his might, _'Your power and your thought run through the Earth like the veins of a river. I know you can hear me. You know what we're fighting for. I came here because Rhonda said I should - that there was a reason I should be here. We'll never stop the golem without your strength. Please - help me to save your priestess!'_

The noise and din of the surrounding chaos seemed to disappear somehow. Grimm stood alone in a dark, empty void. Like a vast, glowing hill, he saw the colossal form of a gigantic bear hunched before him, looking down at him with eyes that seemed both tired and slightly annoyed.

_'You are not my chosen one, Otaatoyiwa.' _came a low voice that rolled like thunder._ 'It is not your place to speak to me, nor to make demands of me. Not even in her behalf.'_ The Great Bear spoke, though it's jaws did not move. The deep rumble of his thoughts echoed from everywhere.

Grimm stood, like a tiny mouse in front of a hulking elephant. He felt a flicker of fear, but quickly buried it. Even seeing Rhonda using the power of the Great Bear, even after their encounter with Maze, he had still only partly believed the legends. Now standing before the Great Bear, hearing his voice and seeing his size and power, he suddenly felt insignificant. But this was the opportunity he had been agonizing to have for so long. He spoke on, thinking of Rhonda and ignoring his fear.

_'I know you can't - or you won't act to free her on your own. You'll send agents to do it for you. Possible and I will be your agents. Lend me your power - I don't care if it's only for a while. Let me use it so we can defeat Maze and find a way to set Rhonda free!'_

The Great Bear looked down at him. _'You are a thief and a mercenary, Grimm Probable. Do not speak! Your lies are useless here - you trained Katasistsikoowa to use her power, but only for the promise of wealth and glory. Despite that, she will do mighty works for good. Unless you change with her, she will walk a different path from you. If you set your heart on riches and power, even if you save her, one day you will drift apart. Yet you seek to free her - for love.'_

_'Yes.' _ he said. _'I'll do whatever it takes to save her!'_

The Great Bear paused, and almost smiled. _'There will be a price.'_ he said.

_'No price is too high.'_ said Grimm fiercely.

_'I do not speak of money.'_ said the Great Bear. _'My power is of the spirit world. It can affect the physical world more keenly than anything else. The price I speak of for you is a spiritual one.'_

Grimm stared up at the Great Bear. _'Name it.'_ he said flatly.

The Great Bear looked more awake now, looking intensely at Grimm. _'You wish to save Katasistsikoowa and keep her love.'_ he said. _'For the first time in your life, you seek to fight for a noble cause and you expect nothing in return. You stand on the threshold of a new world, but your heart is steeped in darkness. This deed will kindle a light within you - and it will scorch the darkness, feeling to you like poison. That is the price you must pay. If you do this - you will be changed.'_

Grimm clenched his fists. _'No price... is too high!'_ he said.

The Great Bear rose on his hind legs, towering above him. The pale smoke which had seemed to surround them both became a vortex, which spun around Grimm in glowing white tendrils. _'You have courage, Otaatoyiwa.'_ he said. _'Very well. You are not worthy to wield my power, but for the sake of my Priestess, I will fight this battle by your side...!'_

Grimm opened his eyes, and a blue light was shining behind them.

_**Part V: The Great Bear Spirit**_

Kim turned, seeing a strange light rising behind her; an explosion of whitish-blue flame surrounding Grimm. The flames swept outwards, and despite being nearly a block away, Monique and Enrique were slammed against the wall of a nearby building by the force of it, though they could feel no heat. The curling threads of fire rose to a great height, and Maze himself paused in his pursuit of Kim to see what it might be.

_From the spirit world, Rhonda was cheering. 'Way to go, Grimm!' she shrieked._

Kim stood dumbfounded as she looked up at the gigantic form of a great bear, over fifty feet tall, standing and glaring at the golem. Perched on his broad, humped back was Grimm. Draped from Grimm's ear were two eagle feathers, just like the ones that Rhonda had worn when fighting Kim.

His outfit had changed. Instead of the battle suit, he was wearing a tunic covered in strange marks, and he held a staff in his hand. He looked strangely impressive, standing on the back of the Great Bear as if he had been expecting its appearance. Looking out through the darkness in the cavity of the Ubergolem's forehead, Maze stared in amazement. _'The Great Bear Spirit has manifest himself.... for that brat?' _he thought, a sensation of fear and jealously coursing through him.

Monique and Enrique looked up at him, their mouths hanging open. 'Holy _crud_..!' Monique said, scrabbling as she crabwalked backwards against the wall.

Grimm looked down at Monique, a tiny dot on the streets below him. 'What?' he said. 'Haven't you ever seen a guy riding on the back of a giant bear?'

_'Head in the game, Otaatoyiwa._' came the voice of the Great Bear in Grimm's mind.

_'Right - hold the golem.'_ Grimm thought, speaking no words. _'If you can bind it so it can't move, I'll do the rest.'_

The Great Bear charged forward with a roar that shook the very ground. Kim gasped, for one of the bear's gigantic paws came down right next to her, actually brushing against her. But to her surprise, she felt nothing, as if the bear had no physical substance.

The Great Bear Spirit lurched forward, his massive clawed paws crashing into the forearms of the Ubergolem. The golem froze, quivering in place, trying to push it's way forward, but looking like a person in a wind tunnel struggling to walk forward against a raging gale.

Grimm leaped from the Bear Spirit's back and fell in a graceful arc, landing neatly on the back of the golem's left hand. The steel plate covering the sigils was beneath his feet, showing only a small crater caused by Kim's sap charge.

Moved by the Great Bear Spirit, Grimm knew what he had to do. At once, he took a bag of colored sand from around his belt, taking a handful and letting it fall in a trail forming a circle. As he continued to draw out patterns over the metal band, he chanted in a low breath.

_Omahkkiaayowa, Nitsiinihkatsimatsiiwa!  
Omahkkiaayowa, Nitsiinihkatsimatsiiwa!_

_'You don't have to pray, I'm right here!' _ The Great Bear's voice rumbled around him. _'Let my spirit guide your hand and complete the symbols quickly - I'm not certain how long I can restrain the golem!'_

Abashed, Grimm continued to chant. Through his eyes, he saw patterns that glowed faintly with a blue light, and he followed them, laying trails of sand across them. Then from the corner of his eye he saw a huge shadow approaching him - the Ubergolem's right hand. It was rushing at him, a massive four-fingered avalanche of rock that would reduce him to a smear....

But a glowing blue shape blocked the golem as the Great Bear Spirit's paw intercepted the hand. Both the golem and the Great Bear were quivering as they strained against each other's power.

Kim stared up at the bizarre clash of titans. She could understand giant robots built by mad scientists, but the sight of a ghostly blue bear wrestling with a living colossus was beyond her experience.

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Some distance away, Summer Gale stood speechless next to the cameraman. They were several blocks removed from the battle, screened by a convoy of tanks and jeeps which had cordoned off the area. But even through the dust and the buildings, the figures confronting each other in the distance could be seen. 'Are you... _getting_ this?' she said at last.

'Uh huh....' said the cameraman, his voice sounding comically flat in his amazement.

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Through the eye of the Ubergolem, Maze stared into the face of the Great Bear. _'Why are you doing this?'_ he screamed with his mind. _'I am fighting to free you from the taint of the pale-faces!'_

_'You have many eyes in your service Sskipoyiwa, but you yourself are blinded.'_ said the Great Bear, his eyes narrowing. _'You are blinded by your hatred of the white man and your years of brooding over perceived injustices from an unreachable past. You could have been true friend and a powerful ally to my Priestess in the present. But like a starving wolf, you chose to gnaw the dry bones of your old schemes and your lust for revenge. In doing this - you have made yourself my enemy!'_

_'No!'_ Maze shouted, struggling wildly to break free from the Great Bear's restraining grip.

Grimm felt it when the symbols were complete. He stood up and brought the staff down with all his strength and the base smashed through the steel plate into the stone beneath like a pry bar into soft clay. The steel crumbled into dust and a spider-web of cracks spread out from the _Aleph_ symbol, glowing white and piercing, then the sigil exploded like a concussion grenade.

Grimm was hurled back through the air. The staff was vanishing in his hand like smoke, the strange outfit he had worn had changed back into the white sheath of the battle-suit. He looked up and saw the form of the Great Bear Spirit, which was also fading away. It seemed to be happening to him in slow motion, and as he looked into the eyes of the Great Bear, he heard his voice thrumming in his mind.

_'It is finished. My price is exacted. But even this victory will not bring back Katasistsikoowa. If you truly wish to save her - take Mi'kksiistsikomma to Yamanouchi. She must seek the wisdom... of the Mystical Monkey....'_

Then the glowing form of the Great Bear vanished into the night like the passing of a dream. Grimm landed hard on the street, sliding back and gritting his teeth. The battle suit absorbed most of the impact, but he still felt lances of pain on every inch of his body.

Kim was by his side an instant later, followed by Monique and Enrique. Kim looked him over, but he didn't seem badly hurt. She looked back up at the Ubergolem. It was still moving, despite the large crater on it's left hand.

Maze glared down at Grimm and Kim, a mad rage burning inside him. _'I can still win!'_ he thought. _'They don't understand that this golem isn't alive in itself, but controlled by me. It will still respond to my will - I can still win!'_ And he turned, moving towards them again.

'Well that was a whole lot of nothing.' Kim said, helping Grimm to his elbows. 'It's still on its feet!'

'It can be _destroyed_ now.' Grimm winced. 'Try not to screw it up.'

Kim turned her fierce eyes onto the Ubergolem, then the building behind it, and had an idea. '_Watch_ me.' she said, and she dashed towards it at her top speed.

Maze stared down through the Ubergolem's eye, seeing her approach, and slammed one gigantic fist into the ground in front of him with a thundering boom and an exploding cloud of debris.

But Kim sailed up through the cloud of dust, propelled by her booster soles, and used the golem's arm as a ramp. Once she reached the shoulder, she sent out her grapple line and rapidly ascended the building behind the golem, a taller skyscraper with a radio tower perched at the top. As she flew upwards past the base of the tower, she quickly planted the last sap charge at the base of the tower.

Maze heaved the Ubergolem up and swept out his right arm, turning towards the building and blasting a huge chunk from the middle floors with one blow, sending steel and glass everywhere. He readied himself for another punch. _'You can't escape from me up there, you meddlesome gnat!'_ he thought angrily. He would pull the entire building down and her with it, and the lower floors were already starting to collapse.

Kim perched at the top of the tower and sent the grapple line from her other arm down towards the Ubergolem's head. It lashed around it's neck and Kim detached the line, hitching it swiftly and securely around the crossbeams at the tower's apex.

The sap charge went off with a deafening boom and Kim activated the winch on the grapple line, pulling with all her might as the building twisted and crumbled beneath her. The tower loosened from it's base and the grapple line winches pulled it point downwards like a giant metallic spearhead as she sailed down towards the Ubergolem's head.

At the last minute, she detached her first grapple line and sent it flying out across the street towards another building, leaping out in a swinging arc.

Maze saw her leap, but any thought of pursuit was quelled as he stared up in shock at the falling tower.

The metal plowed into the Ubergolem's neck, and Monique saw it's body splitting apart into jagged chunks with a deafening roar. Fragments of stone scattered everywhere and she shielded her eyes as an expanding ring of dust swept across them all. Through the haze, she saw Kim landing smoothly on her feet, dropping down on one knee.

She slowly stood up, retracting her grapple line. With a rolling thud, the Ubergolem's head landed heavily next to her, gouging a deep rut in the street, a web of cracks spreading across it's gray surface and turning the dark slit of it's eye socket into a jagged crater.

Monique and Enrique stared at her with open mouths, and even Grimm seemed impressed, though he quickly shook his head and looked away. 'Show off...' he muttered, rubbing his injured arm.

Monique was shaking her head and smiling. 'Girl... you _rock_!' she said, and Rufus was jumping up and down on her shoulder, letting out squeaking cheers.

And from all around them, breaking the silence that had fallen after the Ubergolem's destruction, there came a rising swell of sound that built into a constant roar. The National Guard, the police and local militia, several news crews and a medley of citizens were rushing towards them like an oncoming tidal wave, shouting and cheering.

A panicked look went over Grimm's face as he spotted the incoming mob. Gripping his arm with another wince, he stood up and pulled Enrique after him, activating his stealth mode. They dashed towards a nearby alleyway between two damaged buildings and disappeared into the shadows.

Kim and Monique were soon surrounded by a cheering horde. The National Guard commander saluted from his jeep while dust-covered troops mirrored his gesture. Cell phone cameras flashed and clicked, and Monique found herself swept up along with Kim by the throng, being lifted and paraded to who knew where.

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_And in the spirit world, both Ron and Rhonda were whooping. Rhonda actually threw her arms around Ron, tears streaming down her face. 'They did it!' she said, sobbing. 'They did it, they did it....'_

_Ron was overjoyed too, but also suddenly uncomfortable as his mercenary rival buried her head in his shoulder and broke into deep, racking sobs. 'Uh... yeah.' he said, patting her awkwardly on the head. 'That was pretty badical...'_

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Summer Gale was pushing her hair back into place with her hand as she was jostled around by dozens of people trying to reach the scene, struggling to keep her microphone in place in front of her. '...a spectacular battle, and another menace to the city, once again brought to an end by Kim Possible! This station hopes to be granted an exclusive interview, but in the meantime we will keep our viewers informed with updates as we learn them...'

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The lair was still and silent. Maze stood in the Immersion Pod, stricken with anger and disbelief. The Ubergolem was destroyed. And his hated enemy - that pale-faced boy - had actually summoned the Great Bear Spirit. His mind reeled. It was impossible - the Great Bear existed to serve his own people - to serve _him_.

_'They have corrupted even the Great Bear_!' he thought, _'Is there no end to the white man's decaying influence?'_

'_Sskipoyiwa_,' Monkey Fist's voice sounded through the communicator mounted inside the Immersion Pod - an anchor that pulled him back to reality. 'Dr. Drakken and I have completed our raid of the Middleton Space Center. We are back at the original drop point, but we need you to re-open the shadow passage so we can make our escape.'

Maze didn't answer for a moment. Did not _Maokiiwa_ and the blue one realize the defeat he had suffered? Did they not understand the turmoil he was now feeling?

'Maze - _can you hear me_?' Monkey Fist said, sounding more urgent.

'Yes.' he answered at last.

'Then get us back to the lair at once before the satellite passes out of range.' he said insistently. 'I don't want to be stuck here when the National Guard has recovered from their shock.'

Maze shook his head to clear his thoughts. Yes, there was still his original plan. The pale-faces were not yet aware of that... He gathered his concentration, and glanced at the monitors inside the Immersion Pod which showed pictures of a darkened warehouse in Middleton. He focused his will through the mini-Jammer, letting himself sense the shadows nearly half-way across the world where his allies were waiting...

_Coming Soon:  
Chapter 24_

_What can be seen in a mirror, but also had in a moment's pause?_

_Author: The opening of this chapter was just my way of explaining how Dementor was in attendance at the medal presentation in the Graduation Day episode of Kim Possible - after he had been caught in "Larry's Birthday". I find it so much better to say how some things happen, rather than just letting them happen without explanation. (The number of times they let the Joker get out of Arkham in Batman episodes without explaining how.... honestly, I tell ya. You can't just assume that readers will accept it when you just say 'oh they always get out of jail somehow - don't question it.')_

_I also took the chance to explain why Kim's suit was malfunctioning periodically in Season 4, and why Wade seemed to be having so much trouble with it. I didn't mind putting in a nod to all the people who were saying in their reviews that they thought a Wade and Jade pairing would be cute. It's still too creepy to have them in an adult style relationship (or even a teen one) as they're still too young. But after the Valentine's Day episode, it was plain that Wade at least has a mind for romance ;)_

_And so Grimm finally communes with the Great Bear Spirit in a fight scene I'd had in mind for ages. Yeah, I admit I was inspired by the 'summoning jutsu' scenes in some episodes of Naruto. But hopefully I put my own unique spin on it. _

_And bear in mind readers - even though it SEEMS like Ron and Rhonda have been in the spirit world for ages (given the number of chapters and the time between postings) in 'real time', only about 3 weeks have passed since they were banished...._

_Grimm has finally reached a level of spiritual awareness with Rhonda. What will this mean for Kim? Who is the Mystical Monkey? What exactly is the price which the Great Bear took from Grimm? All these questions and more will be answered soon, so keep watching for the next chapter!_


	25. Ch 24: Reflections

A Friend In Darkness  
All Things Probable 3  
A Kim Possible Fanfiction  
by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and its affiliates, etc. etc.

Chapter 24  
Reflections

_The Rehearsal Dance_

_**Part I: Exchange**_

In their hidden mountain lair, Monkey Fist calmly watched a news broadcast on a small television set. The flickering pale light cast long shadows in the dimness, and the voice through the speakers echoed tinny and shrill before falling dead in the deep caverns behind.

'All of Middleton is breathing a sigh of relief after the menace of the giant statue.' said Summer Gale, now back at a news studio. 'Teen crime fighter Kim Possible destroyed the statue in a stunning battle that can only be described as 'heroic'. Our cameras were able to catch footage of our daring local teen, charging to the attack against the colossal titan and winning. Due to the distance, the footage is a bit low resolution, but as you can plainly see....'

Her next words were drowned out by a low, guttural snarl, followed by a smashing sound. Monkey Fist turned to look at Maze, who had struck his staff against the casing of the Immersion Pod, cracking a glass pane and leaving a small dent in the frame.

'Calm yourself,' said Monkey Fist wearily. 'We still need that.' He had been watching for some time as Maze prowled the lair in a tense, but mostly silent rage. Maze hadn't even seemed to notice as Monkey Fist and Dr. Drakken had returned to the lair through the shadow passage and begun unloading the supplies they had stolen. Nor had he said anything as their golem slaves began distributing equipment and parts under Drakken's direction.

But when Monkey Fist had tuned in to Middleton News, the shadow shaman's anger had brimmed over. 'It was _useless_!' he hissed. 'For all the labor and time I spent creating the Ubergolem, it was _still_ destroyed!'

'I believe I warned you not to underestimate Kim Possible.' said Monkey Fist dryly. 'She has a history of doing this sort of thing.' He turned his attention back to the TV, where Summer Gale was still talking.

'...did manage to get a few words from Kim Possible immediately after the battle.' And the screen cut to a shaky camera view of Kim with Summer's voice heard off camera. 'Ms. Possible - would you share your thoughts after this stunning victory?'

Kim wiped her forehead, brushing her matted hair away from her eyes. 'Same as always,' she said brightly. 'It's no big.'

'And this new battle suit - is this a new look you're trying out?'

Kim shook her head. 'I'm told black's not really my color. I'll be switching back soon.'

Summer quickly darted in as Kim paused. 'Do you have any idea who was behind this attack?'

'Actually yes.' said Kim, and her smile faded a little and she leaned in to look right into the camera lens. 'So if you're watching Monkey Fist, I'm putting you on notice. _You're next_.'

'Ms. Possible, you say Monkey Fist did this, but no one saw him in Middleton tonight. Is he still out there? What will you do next?'

Kim smiled faintly again. 'I'd say 'I'm going to Disneyland', but I've got a villain to track down...'

Maze shook his head, pacing back and forth. 'Could she know where we are?' he said, sounding rattled. 'Is that possible?'

Monkey Fist raised an eyebrow with a stony, grating sound. 'I suppose anything's possible....'

'For a _Possible_!' said Dr. Drakken, walking past them, carrying some parts in a box. 'Like I haven't heard _that _one like a million times!'

'Relax.' said Monkey Fist, ignoring Drakken. 'Things haven't turned out all that badly. We were able to escape completely undetected, and now we have all we need to complete the full-scale Jammer. It's only a matter of completing the construction, and then the endgame can begin.'

Maze was glaring, but said nothing. The television speakers replaced the silence that fell with more of Summer's report. '...disappeared soon after this brief interview. Her family has so far refused to comment. And as the task of assessing and cleaning up the damage now begins, new questions are beginning to be asked.'

'Because there is strong evidence that Kim Possible had _help_ in taking down this giant statue. Our cameras exclusively reveal that before Kim attacked and destroyed the statue, it was restrained and damaged by what seemed to be a gigantic bear made of energy...'

A blurry image showed the Ubergolem locked in a grappling struggle with the Great Bear Spirit. Maze growled again, turning away from the screen as Summer continued.

'This after it was seen that Kim was fighting alongside someone else at the scene. Again, our camera was not able to get a clear view from this distance, but a figure wearing another battle suit was definitely spotted, and a few reckless citizens with cell phone cameras were able to get more still images....'

A pixilated image of a figure in a white battle suit was shown, and another of a figure wearing a strange outfit carrying a staff. 'That is the ceremonial garb of a Blackfoot warrior.' Maze growled. 'How _dare_ he...'

Monkey Fist was now glaring as well, looking thoughtful. 'Probable never did anything like this when he was doing jobs for _me_.' he said. 'What exactly happened?'

'Somehow, he summoned the Great Bear Spirit.' Maze said quietly, as if loath to hear his own words.

'The Great Bear?' said Monkey Fist. 'The same Great Bear who you said would be yours to command once Ms. Fatigable was out of the way?'

'The... the time _Katasistsikoowa_ spent using his power must have corrupted him somehow.' said Maze, shaking his head. 'Much as you have said _Ipi'sskinao'siwa_ corrupted your Mystical Monkey Power...'

Monkey Fist looked thoughtful. 'Well...' he said, 'That at least I can understand. But if Probable has also learned how to use this Bear Power, then it changes a few things. Does he now possess the same power that his girlfriend once had?'

Maze looked suddenly worried, as if the thought had not occurred to him. 'I... don't know.' he said.

'Well,' said Monkey Fist quietly. 'I suppose we could _ask_ him.'

Maze paused. 'Ask him?' he said. 'What do you mean?'

Monkey Fist shrugged. 'I'm suggesting that we might be able to counter both Possible and Probable by appealing to his more... _practical_ nature.'

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After the battle in Middleton, Kim had escaped from the press and quickly made a run to her house and Monique's house to check on their families and let them know they were all right. They had been understanding when she said the sitch wasn't over yet and she needed to return to Riddleton.

'Monkey Fist is still out there, and we don't know where.' she said. 'Until we take them down, there's still a chance they could hit you if I was standing too close.'

'How about another hug for the family before you go?' said Mr. Dr. Possible, putting up a brave face.

Kim wrapped her arms around her mom and dad warmly. She looked down at the twins, who were shuffling. 'Still have cooties from the last one.' they chimed.

Monique looked a little less happy when she came back out of her house and got into the Sloth. 'Is everyone all right?' Kim asked, concerned.

'Yeah.' said Monique. 'Except... the place where my Mom works got hit. She wasn't there when it happened, but....' and she trailed off into silence.

Kim knew without speaking what it meant. Another source of income for Monique's family would most likely be stunted while her mother's employer rebuilt - if they rebuilt at all. So it was a rather quiet trip as they went back to Riddleton. Grimm's bike had again silently appeared in front of them, guiding the way after their GPS failed. But the entire way back, Kim was thinking carefully about what to say next.

They returned to Riddleton near the dawn. The battle, the aftermath and the trip back had taken up much of the night. Grimm had dropped off Enrique at his house without fanfare and driven to his own house. Kim followed him out as he parked his bike in the garage, leaving Monique and Rufus asleep in the Sloth.

'It's _late_, Possible.' he said as she approached. 'Go back to Rhonda's and get as much rest as you can, there's still school tomorrow.'

'I want to know what happened back there.' she said firmly. 'Not that I'm ungrateful for the assist - but since when could you do... _that_?'

'I don't know what you mean.' he mumbled, looking towards the door leading from the garage interior to the house.

'Hello?' Kim said. 'A giant glowing _bear_? You think I didn't notice?'

'It wasn't _me_.' said Grimm. 'It was the Great Bear Spirit.'

'The _what_?'

'He's the source of Rhonda's powers.' Grimm said, sounding tired.

Kim remembered Maze's words at the UNIT lab before he had tricked her. _'This is the power of the Great Bear Spirit. It is a mystical power that belongs to my people....'_ Dozens of other questions sprang into her mind. 'Then how did _you_...' she started, but Grimm waved her off.

'Later.' he said. 'I'm dead on my feet here. Tomorrow.' and he did seem to be stumbling as he went into the house and closed the door behind him.

Kim stared after in, standing in the now empty garage, then shook her head and went back to the Sloth.

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Mr. Probable stood up from his reading chair as he heard Grimm enter the house. One look at his son, however, told him that questioning would be pointless at the moment. They exchanged looks, Mr. Probable giving him an expression that said plainly, '_You'd better be prepared to talk about this tomorrow.'_

Grimm nodded and shuffled wearily to the door leading down into the basement. His arms and feet felt as if they had lead weights strapped to them as he entered his room and cast himself down on the bed without changing out of the battle suit. He was asleep within seconds.

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Monique didn't do much besides yawn as she made her way to the guest room at Rhonda's house. She waved vaguely towards Kim as she closed the door, and Kim heard a heavy squeak which told her Monique had collapsed onto the bed.

Oddly enough, Kim didn't feel very tired. It was often like that on missions. Once you hit a certain time of night, you just didn't feel sleepy anymore, and she changed into a nightdress, sitting down at Rhonda's desk.

Despite the victory, she felt frustrated. She knew Monique wouldn't say anything about it, but that the loss of income was going to hurt her family even more. She wanted to do something about it, but this was different than fighting villains or Ubergolems. Then she fished a slip of paper out of a pocket in her baggage. Mr. Matter's check.

She found herself staring at it in silence, imagining the possibilities. She could set up an anonymous fund to help anyone whose house or business had been affected by the attack - no one would question it if a portion of the funds went to help Monique's family. Maybe seeing a fund set up would even encourage others to donate - to help more people...

The voice in her mind which protested, which said this was villain money, and that it was wrong to take payment of _any_ kind seemed weaker. _'It's to help people in need..'_ she thought, and suddenly felt an angry defiance. _'Why shouldn't I use this money to fix the damage Monkey Fist has done - to help the people and families that have been hurt?'_

She picked up a pen, slapped the check down on the desk and firmly drew out her signature. _'This isn't for me - it's to help other people!'_ she thought furiously. Then she folded the check in half and slipped it quickly back into her luggage. But before she turned out the lights, she found herself almost unconsciously putting her bag behind all the others - so she wouldn't have to look at it...

_**Part II: The Price is Right**_

Grimm slept fitfully, tossing and turning. He could still hear the voice of the Great Bear in his mind, and in his sleep he found himself parsing the words, trying to determine what they could mean.

_'Even if you save her, one day you will drift apart...'  
'The price I speak of is a spiritual one...'  
'If you do this, you will be changed...'_

He thought and wondered, even in his sleep. He didn't _feel_ any different. The thought of humiliating Possible still brought a smile to his face. He was still a mercenary, and still was willing to accept any job... Except from Maze or Monkey Fist. And he realized, he had never made exceptions before the incident with Maze at Kamp Kwitcherbeliakin. Had he already changed - slowly - and simply not realized it? Was it something to do with the Great Bear's power, or was it simply _growing up_?

No, he thought. He knew in his heart he was only cozying up to Possible as a means to an end - to find a way to beat Maze and Monkey Fist, and to get Rhonda back. It was all self-interest - nothing to do with _changing_. In fact if anything, he was _resisting_ change. He just wanted things to go back to the way things were... to have Rhonda back.

And he saw Rhonda's figure, hovering like a wraith in front of him. _'Hey, GP...'_ she seemed to whisper. He reached out his hand for her...

And he woke up lying in bed, staring at the moon-dappled ceiling of his room, his arm raised up towards nothing. He felt something under his eye and quickly reached to touch it, finding his hand suddenly wet with a teardrop glistening on his fingertip.

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The morning came quickly, and Grimm guessed he'd only gotten a couple hours of sleep before his alarm clock started buzzing. He cleaned up and made his way upstairs where he found his whole family waiting silently around the breakfast table, their food mostly untouched. 'What?' he said, looking them all over. 'You don't need me to eat, right?'

'You know the drill, boy.' said Mr. Probable. 'Family debriefing comes first.' Grimm sighed and sat heavily down at the table, taking a piece of toast. 'So...' said Mr. Probable, his fingers tented in front of him, '...what happened?'

Grimm tried to shrug nonchalantly, avoiding everyone's eyes. 'The usual.' he said. 'Go in, finish the job, leave.'

Both Lynn and Mim laughed. 'The _usual_?' said Mim.

'Yeah _right_!' said Lynn.

'We've seen you tooling around town on your giant energy bear _dozens_ of times.' said Mim.

Grimm winced. 'So... it was _spotted_?' he said, but he knew even as he asked it that it was a stupid question. Mr. Probable didn't answer, but instead he picked up a remote and turned on a DiVo perched on top of the kitchen counter TV set.

'...Still no word on the identity of the daring heartthrob who assisted Kim Possible in destroying the giant statue,' said Summer Gale. 'But his exploits and heroism have all of Middleton calling him 'Bear Boy.' Summer paused for a moment, looking uncomfortable. Then she hurriedly looked off camera and whispered, 'Was that _really_ the best you could do...?' then Mr. Probable shut off the TV.

Lynn and Mim both raised their eyebrows so high it looked like they might pop off their heads. '_Bear Boy?_' said Lynn with a mocking smirk.

_'Daring heart-throb_?' said Mim, and they both started making exaggerated kissing motions towards him.

Grimm's face flamed red and he jabbed his fork towards them. 'Shut _up_, twisters!' he said with a dangerous growl.

'That's enough, _all_ of you.' said Mrs. Probable with a firm voice.

Mr. Probable kept staring at Grimm. 'You might be interested in knowing that some of my colleagues are _very_ concerned about this.' he said. 'They don't know who you are yet, but they're talking about mobilizing covert ops to find out. They don't like the thought of any super-heroes running around with powers that might endanger national security...'

Grimm laughed bitterly. 'They won't have to worry about that.' he said. 'If they knew what I had to go through to make him appear just _once_.... I don't think he or I would want it to happen again.'

'Then how did it happen this time?' said Mrs. Probable. 'Has it got something to do with Rhonda? I've heard you calling her the Bear Priestess sometimes.'

Grimm blushed and looked away. 'Yeah.' he said quietly. 'Something to do with Rhonda.'

Mr. Probable didn't say anything for a few seconds. 'Is that all you have to say?'

'For now, yeah.' said Grimm, not meeting his eye. 'You can tell this to the DOD if it will keep them off my back. It was most likely a one-time thing. It's got nothing to do with national security or the military. It's got more to do with protecting people from Monkey Fist than anything else.'

Mr. Probable nodded slowly. 'All right,' he said. 'I'll do what I can to throw them off the scent. But when you're feeling up to it, I still want to know exactly what this giant bear is capable of.'

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After breakfast, Grimm went to the garage. Rueful was asleep in a padded basket near the _Ksikkihkíni_, but he got up at once and scurried to the seat of the bike. Grimm waited, taking out his communicator.

'Jade, you up?' he said.

Jade's face tilted into the camera view. Her eyes were bleary and her hair was out of their ponytails, looking like a multi-colored octopus had died on her head. 'Yo G-Man, whazzup?' she said, and her voice sounded as tired as she looked.

'Damage control.' he said simply. 'I need you to hack into as many news agencies as you can and delete any footage of that dust-up in Middleton. They got me on camera.'

'Well yeah,' said Jade. 'What happened there was the best way of saying _'look at me' _ that you could have pulled besides shouting.'

'I want all the videos and pictures wiped, staring at ground zero.' said Grimm firmly.

'I'll do what I can.' said Jade, stretching. 'But you know how the internet and stuff is - we might have waited too long. It's probably all over Utube by now.'

'If we can delete the originals we can still circulate rumors that any copies floating around are hoaxes.' Grimm muttered. 'I mean, people are still saying the moon landing was fake, for crying out loud...'

'Maybe,' said Jade. 'But why? I've looked at most of the news footage, and it doesn't look like they got any clear shots of your face...'

'I was fighting along with Possible.' Grimm said darkly. 'And people in Middleton _and_ Riddleton know I've been hanging around with her for a while. Someone's bound to put two and two together unless we get ahead of this. Turn out the Irregulars if you have to.'

'You got it G-Man. Or should I call you _Bear Boy_?'

Grimm glared at the screen. 'Shut up.' he said, and turned it off.

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When Kim met Grimm at school, they both awkwardly exchanged wrapped bundles, giving each other back their original battle-suits. 'Laundered?' Kim said pointedly, but knowing she'd be washing it again later whether Grimm had cleaned the suit or not.

'Yeah.' said Grimm, looking away. They both cleared their throats and made their way to class.

Under the watchful eye of Ms. Darken, Kim wasn't able to ask him any questions about last night. But during lunch, she was aided by the fact that she, Monique _and_ Enrique wanted to know all about the Great Bear.

Grimm answered as cagily as he could, saying nothing about his days of pleading to the Great Bear for help, or the communion he'd finally had which led to the Great Bear's dramatic appearance. He simply let on that his closeness to Rhonda must have led the Great Bear to lend a paw when it looked like things were hopeless.

'_Muy_ _bien_, Senor Grimm!' said Enrique. 'And what super powers does this mean you now possess?'

'Keep it down, will you?' Grimm whispered. 'I don't have _any_ super-powers. I didn't 'make' the Great Bear appear, he just... decided to pitch in because I asked him.'

Kim, Monique and Rufus all rolled their eyes to each other. 'So if your GF was the one who was tight with this Bear guy,' said Monique, 'Does that mean you saw _her_ too?'

Kim stared at Grimm intently, but Grimm was avoiding looking at any of them. 'OK fine, I did see her.' he said.

Kim felt a stab of jealousy. First Monique made contact with Ron - now Grimm had seen Rhonda? Why wasn't she in on any of this action? 'What did she say?' Kim asked, her eyes narrowed resentfully.

'Nunna your beeswax.' Grimm muttered, looking equally sulky.

'I don't suppose she told you where Monkey Fist is hiding?' Kim said sarcastically.

'If she had, do you think I'd be sitting around _here_?' Grimm snapped.

_'Hey, Bear Boy!'_

Grimm flinched at the sound of the words and turned to his meal, making like he wasn't paying attention. But Donnie Stoneport was next to the table seconds later, staring down at Grimm until he could no longer ignore him. 'Donnie,' he said. 'What dragged you away from the captain's dining room?'

'I saw you on the news last night, _Bear Boy_.' said Donnie with a sneering expression. 'This a new move you're planning to show off for the team?'

'I don't know what you're talking about.' said Grimm mechanically.

Donnie snorted. 'So you're saying you _weren't_ the guy in white underoos helping Kim out in Middleton?'

'Yeah right,' said Grimm with a convincing display of sarcasm. 'Like I'd be caught dead wearing _white_.'

Donnie sneered, but looked a little less sure of himself. 'I'd say you were playing dumb, but you don't have to _play_ dumb...' he said.

'Did you have anything intelligent to say?' Grimm said. 'I'm trying to _eat_ here.'

'You're up to something Probable.' said Donnie. 'And I'm gonna find out what!' then he backed slowly away, giving Grimm the eye and pointing at him before leaving the cafeteria.

'Great,' Grimm muttered. 'As if putting up with _you_ losers wasn't enough.'

Kim smirked at his annoyance, but Enrique cuffed him on the shoulder. 'No worries _amigo_,' he said jovially. 'He is simply jealous because you have Rhonda, while the only one who loves him is himself. And even he knows what a lousy companion he is.'

Grimm smiled, but even as Enrique mentioned Rhonda's name, he saw a flash of blonde hair a few yards away, a black shirt and brown cargo pants. He stood up suddenly, staring. But it was only one of the cheerleaders. He blinked, because she wasn't wearing black or brown at all - but he would have sworn he'd seen both colors on her - like Rhonda in her mission clothes.

The cheerleader was now staring back at him. She blushed and waved with a soft smile. Grimm sat back down hastily.

'Tack on your chair?' said Monique.

'No... it's nothing.' said Grimm, but he felt rattled.

At that moment, Cousin Mary stumped up to the table and stared down at Grimm, drumming her fingers against her folded arms. 'Well?' she lisped.

Grimm shrugged impatiently, wondering if he would ever be allowed to actually eat his lunch. 'Well what?' he said.

Mary looked affronted. 'The Prom Rehearsal Dance is _tonight_!' she said. 'And I don't see Rhonda anywhere - do you?'

Grimm winced, glancing around Mary to where the cheerleader had been, wondering if he'd been seeing things. 'Oh... right.' he said. In all the to-do over the last couple of days, he'd totally spaced on the Prom Rehearsal dance.

'Yeah.' Cousin Mary repeated. 'That means you fill in for Rhonda. And we'll need you at our pre-rehursal to make sure you're not lying about being able to sing the number!'

'Fine, I'll be there - your place, right?'

Mary nodded and made her way back to one of the tables. 'A chance to see you trying to look good on stage...' said Monique slyly. 'This rehearsal thing might not be a total wash after all.'

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After school, Grimm spent the hour or so before he was due at Cousin Mary's going through the training yard, trying to focus. He went through the first and second enclosures, but something felt off. His blocking was barely keeping pace with the incoming attacks, he was finishing the different enclosures almost too late to stay ahead of the timer.

He stood in the last enclosure, blocking and fending off tennis balls, when unbidden, he thought he saw Rhonda standing below the platform looking up at him. He paused, trying to make sure of what he was seeing.

_Thwack_!

One of the tennis balls hit him square on the forehead and he was so surprised that he fell backwards. At once there was a loud buzzing, and his sisters' pre-recorded taunt echoed in his ears.

_'Gimme an L, Gimme an O, Gimme an S-E-R! That spells loser! Loser! Loooooooooo-serrrrrrrr!!'_

But Grimm barely paid attention. He got to his knees but couldn't rise any further. He had been so sure he'd seen Rhonda, but as he gazed wildly around the training yard, he saw nothing. He was alone. _'Alone...'_ he thought bitterly. _'I've been alone since she disappeared...'_

He heard a thrashing of approaching footsteps through the surrounding woods, and Lynn and Mim crashed into the training yard, looking delighted. 'I was _him_ this time!' said Mim.

'Too bad, bro!' said Lynn.  
'Looked like a head shot too! Wonder if he even _felt _it!'

Grimm said nothing and didn't move as his sisters continued to fire back and forth with various taunts and jibes at his failure. He simply stayed on his knees, staring at the ground. Finally they stopped, their smiles faltering.

'Jeez...' said Mim. 'What is _with _you?'  
'We've been waiting for this moment for years, the least you can do is play along!' said Lynn.

'What do you need _me_ for?' Grimm said in a miserable growl without raising his head. 'Go ahead and laugh, I don't care. Rhonda's gone - what difference does it make? What difference does _anything _make?'

Lynn and Mim looked as if he had punched them both in the gut. 'Whu.... you.... No _fair_...' stammered Lynn.  
'Making us feel _sorry_ for you the one time you blew it in the training yard!' said Mim.  
'Way to spoil the moment...' Lynn muttered, and behind his closed eyes, Grimm could hear them plodding slowly back towards the exit.

Grimm didn't follow them, but remained there in silence for several minutes. _'What's the matter with me?'_ he thought, clenching his hands. He took out his communicator and waited for the answering beep.

'G-man, what up?' said Jade's voice. 'I managed to delete all the original footage from Middleton, and I've started some rumors on the conspiracy websites about the whole thing that seem to be picking up steam with the skeptics...'

'Jade,' he said, cutting across her, 'I need you to.... say something stupid.'

'What?' said Jade.

'Just do it.' Grimm said uncomfortably. 'Say something Rhonda might say.'

Jade looked curiously at Grimm. His expression seemed forlorn and somehow... _sad_. It was a side of him she'd never seen, or at least that Grimm had never _let_ her see, and she wasn't sure how to cope with it. 'Um... Rubber baby buggy bumpers?' she said at last.

Grimm let out one stifled chuckle, shaking his head. 'Thanks Jade.' he said softly.

'Yeah... no problem.' she said, feeling a bit weirded out. 'Uh... you're supposed to be at Mary's in fifteen, you might want to...'

'Yeah.' said Grimm, and he turned off the communicator.

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When Kim and Monique had come home from school, they found Grimm had given them some cash to rent dresses, and they had hit the local mall eagerly, not having gone shopping together for some time. Monique found a store that sold dresses almost instinctively. Kim picked out a number that looked a lot like the dresses she wore with Ron to formal occasions. Monique picked a modest, black dress with sequins. Both of them stood in the full length mirrors in the store, striking various poses.

'Oh yeah,' said Monique. 'Don't need to be summer to know we're _hot_!' Kim smiled before going back in the changing room.

Kim thought that Ron might have mentioned something about how girls dawdle over getting dressed for special events, and Kim had to admit that the time to leave for the Prom Rehearsal dance seemed to come very rapidly. She wasn't sure why she was going all out - Ron, after all, was not there to appreciate the results. But she didn't want to go looking like a slob either. Pride led her to look good even if she wasn't trying to impress anyone.

As evening fell, Grimm and Enrique turned up, looking fairly sharp in tail-less tuxedos. Mrs. Fatigable insisted on taking pictures. 'Oh I know Rhonda's not here,' she said, 'But when she gets back she'd never forgive me for not getting a shot or two!' Grimm posed with the rest of them rather reluctantly, making sure there was plenty of distance between himself and Kim.

'Let's be clear on this,' said Grimm, as they left the house and made their way to the Sloth. 'We're _accompanying_ each other to the dance, we're not _going_ together.'

'You _hear_ that?' said Monique to Enrique, for he was sidling up to her with a misty look in his eyes. Enrique sighed and retreated, but didn't look away.

As they got to the Sloth, Grimm took Rueful from his shoulder and eased him down on the sidewalk. 'Sorry, Ms. Darken won't allow pets at this shindig.' he said. 'You can chill in Rhonda's sanctorum till we get back, right?'

Rueful saluted and scurried off towards the backyard, disappearing between two slats in the wooden fence. Kim glanced up to the window of Rhonda's room and saw Rufus giving her the thumbs-up sign and a wink.

'Which do you dislike most?' Grimm said, not looking at them. 'Chivalry or Independence?'

'_What_ are you talkin' bout?' said Monique.

'The car doors.' he answered. 'Do you want them held open as a sign of respect and chivalry? Or would you take it as some kind of insult to your female independence?'

Kim and Monique exchanged glances. 'I feel _chivalrous_ tonight,' Kim mused.

Grimm sighed and shook his head, opening the driver side door. Enrique darted forward instantly, opening the passenger side door for Monique with a soppy grin. 'This would make more sense if I were driving.' Grimm muttered as Kim got in.

'I'm not riding on your bike and messing up my hair.' said Kim as the boys closed the doors, then got into the Sloth in the backseat. 'And you're not driving my car either. You don't mind having a _girl_ in the driver's seat, do you?'

'Actually, I _prefer_...' Enrique started, but yelped as Grimm smacked him on the shoulder with a scowl.

'Let's just get this over with...' Grimm said, staring out of the window as Kim started the car and moved off down the street.

_**Part III: Fast Times at Riddleton High**_

The halls at Riddleton High were filled with a trickling of Seniors making their way towards the gym. Kim hadn't noted any decorations being put up over the course of the school day, but she certainly saw them now. The halls were decked with intricate displays, complicated arrangements of streamers and banners. Mrs. Darken, still wearing her rigid gray jacket and skirt, was prowling the halls, and Kim suspected she had assigned some team of students to put up the decorations between the time when school dismissed and the dance began. She had to admire the efficiency.

All the decorations were green and festooned with dark purple question marks. At the large doors leading into the gym was a gigantic banner that read: _No urging needed to have this without tea. Using the same car to move a coffin twice._

The Riddleton cheer squad were all gathered together in the hallway, being fawned over by a number of smitten boys. _'Hi_ Kim!' they all said together, waving at her as she passed by. A number of jealous eyes from the boys darted from Kim to Grimm and back.

She saw Donnie Stoneport soon after, and the thought of Bonnie wearing a tux like his struck her as so funny that she couldn't fight back a giggle. Donnie noticed her at once and quickly checked his zipper before looking angrily at Grimm who was following Kim into the dance hall.

Kim gasped, thinking for a moment that she had wandered into the finale of _Batman Forever_. Spotlights were projecting question marks made of green light everywhere. Computer controlled lasers traced question marks and riddles on the high ceiling. Green balloons with question marks on them hovered over every table, and a mammoth question mark made of glittering green tinsel dominated the gym from its mount at the back of the stage.

Enrique and Monique looked around, impressed. The gym was already filled with a crowd of seniors wearing gowns or suits. Some were dancing to a tune which Kim recognized at once, smirking.

_If you find your world is caving in  
you can bet you'll need a friend,  
someone to take those fears away!_

_Say the word! Make a call and I'll be there!  
Anytime, anywhere - have you heard?  
That I'm all about saving your world!  
All you have to do is say the word..._

Grimm had a sour look on his face, and he seemed to be trying to blend into the wall, retreating from sight while Kim and the others moved towards the refreshment tables. Even the punch was green with question mark shaped ice cubes.

'You're Kim Possible!' said a voice. Kim turned and saw it was one of the boys on the gymnastics team, with brown hair and dimples. 'Saw you on TV taking down that giant rock dude - awesome!'

'It was no big.' said Kim, smiling.

'You came with Probable, right?' he went on. 'I saw him coming in - he looked a little off. Is he OK?'

Kim wasn't really sure herself. Ever since the battle at Middleton, Grimm hadn't been his normal, cocky, insolent self. She was hit with a sudden impulse and leaned in, lowering her voice. 'Well...' she said, 'I heard Grimm is losing his touch, but don't tell anyone.'

The boy nodded, and Kim saw him move to another group, engaging another student in a muttered exchange. She remembered trying to start rumors about Bonnie a long time ago, and sabotaging Prince Wally's campaign for class president. And she wondered if anything would come of it this time. But a fast dance number had started and Monique was heading out onto the dance floor with Enrique following after her like a puppy. She followed as well, and they were soon lost in a boiling sea of dancing Seniors.

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Jade tapped her computer keyboard, the sound of it thunking loudly in the emptiness of her room. Wade was holed up in the guest house, still trying to find a way to trace Monkey Fist or Maze. She'd been keeping an eye on him to make sure he wasn't quietly trying to pinpoint Riddleton on Kim's orders. But since the kiss, she felt leery of actually being in the same room with him.

Grimm and the others had gone to the Prom Rehearsal dance. She'd never gone to a dance before, and with her tutoring being nearly all private, it seemed unlikely that she'd ever get the chance. She felt jealous, but there wasn't much she could do about it.

Then she heard a familiar, echoing shout in the cavernous marble hallways of the house. _'Jaaaaaaaaaaade!'_

She sighed, going over a list of things she knew annoyed her father and checking to make sure she hadn't done anything on that list over the course of the day. Once satisfied that she hadn't done anything wrong that she could think of, she quickly made her way into the main living room. Mr. Omo-sa was seated in a lavish couch next to Mrs. Omo-sa, both of them looking like they were in the middle of a contest to see who could conduct themselves with the most dignity. 'Yes dad.' she said wearily.

'I have heard rumors from the staff that Wade-san _kissed_ you.' he said in his grating voice. 'Is this true?'

Jade winced. 'Yes.' she said slowly. 'But I didn't kiss _him_. He kind of... ambushed me.' She expected him to fly into a rage, but there was a shrewd, calculating look in his eye as he exchanged glances with his wife.

'Does this mean you and Wade-san will be... _dating_?' he asked.

'No!' said Jade firmly. 'We don't really like each other! He was just short on sleep and... he wasn't thinking properly. The whole thing was just a _mistake_, that's all!'

Mr. Omo-sa stood up and paced, his immaculate shoes making crisp tapping noises on the shiny floor. 'Well...' he said thoughtfully, 'If you wished to use his weakness to get more information about the Nakasumi Corporation...'

Jade blinked and fought hard not to roll her eyes. Of course - all he'd wanted to know was if Jade could use Wade's romantic delusion as a tool to get corporate secrets. Any feelings that she or Wade might have were secondary. 'Yeah sure...' she said, her voice now tired and distracted. 'I'll get right on that.'

Mr. Omo-sa nodded curtly, and Jade took that to mean she could go. She was half-way out of the room when she stopped and turned back. 'Dad?' she said, her voice hesitant. 'Have you and Mom ever thought about... having another baby?'

There was a moment of silence. Then Mr. Omo-sa broke into loud laughter. Jade's face fell, but Mr. Omo-sa actually leaned against a wall in his mirth. 'Jade...' he said, wiping a tear from his eye. 'You try to amuse your father! Have another child? We cannot even control _you_!' And he bent over in a fresh volley of laughs.

'Heh... heh.' said Jade, with a bitter, forced smile. 'Yeah... great joke, huh? Forget I said anything...'

And her father's laughter echoed in her ears as she made her way back to her room.

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Grimm was sitting at one of the round tables away from the dance floor, idly nursing a cup of punch and fiddling with the cloth and ribbons that bedecked the table. He ignored every request to dance from the various girls which milled around in the gym. Instead he focused his attention on the overall behavior of the crowd.

The students were most thickly grouped around the cheerleaders. Enrique was making his rounds through the crowd, asking nearly every girl to dance. Some of them did, others waved him off. Ms. Darken was making regular patrols of the hallways, the gym and the stage, and Grimm had marked all the students who had signed on to be Ms. Darken's plain-clothes snitches and watch over things while she herself was elsewhere. So far there had been several broken-up PDAs, two thwarted attempts to spike the punch bowl, and one song in the DJ's list was skipped as 'inappropriate'.

And of course, Kim Possible was like a queen bee in a hive with her pick of the drones. She was dancing, but she refused to dance _with_ anyone, vanishing from the dance floor whenever a slow number came up. This seemed to make the boys want to try even harder to get a dance from her, and Grimm had watched her turning down requests nearly all evening. She still had a sizeable crowd of hangers-on though, and reading their lips, Grimm knew most of them were talking about how they'd seen her on the news last night and admiring her heroics in tackling the Ubergolem.

In times past, he had done this at every dance, including Junior Prom, as an exercise to hone his observation skills and because he didn't have a girlfriend. But after he'd started shipping with Rhonda, he'd gone to a couple of dances with her, and found himself enjoying them on a whole new level.

'Senor Grimm,' Enrique appeared from the midst of a crowd of other dancers, looking flushed and dabbing sweat from his forehead with a napkin. 'I have heard some of the other students talking - some of them are saying that you're losing your touch, purple monkey dishwasher.'

Grimm felt irritated, remembering his recent failure in the training yard. 'Tell them not a chance,' he said defiantly. 'Especially that purple monkey dishwasher part.' Enrique nodded and vanished back onto the dance floor.

Before long, Ms. Darken strode onto the stage and took a microphone, reading from a note card taken from her blouse pocket. 'The talent portion of the dance will begin now.' she said simply. 'First up, the AV club.' And she left the stage at once as the curtains came up to show a number of students set up with full band equipment.

The music was all right, but not outstanding, palatable enough to keep the students dancing while it played. Cousin Mary appeared at Grimm's table. 'We're the fourth act, cousin!' she said. 'Let's go backstage and get ready with the others!' Grimm sighed and followed her through the crowd towards the backstage door.

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Kim and Monique were having a fairly good time, though the structure of the Rehearsal dance was a lot more rigid than any she'd attended in Middleton. Ms. Darken seemed to have an itinerary she was working through, a set amount of time for regular dancing, a fifteen minute punch break, then more dancing, a station for photographs and so on.

The talent portion was good, with several clubs from the school playing various musical numbers, mostly pop songs from past and present. But the one Kim had been waiting for had just come up, and she stopped dancing, moving closer to the stage to watch as Ms. Darken made another announcement.

'The Chess Club.' she said, and left the stage again.

The sparkling, sequined curtain rolled back again, revealing a number of gangly students, male and female. All of them looked out of shape, either too thin or slightly overweight, and seemed like they'd be more at home wearing high-water pants and button-down polo shirts instead of the tuxedos and gowns in which they were dressed. Grimm took a place on the stage with them, looking very ill at ease among the nerdy chorus of students.

Cousin Mary took a microphone and her nasally voice echoed with a tinny ring through the speakers. 'Hellooooooo Riddleton!' she squealed, trying to sound like a rock star addressing a city by name on a concert tour. 'Get ready to kick your feet in the air like you just don't care!'

Then the chess club started to play, with all the gusto and enthusiasm of persons who didn't realize they ought to be embarrassed.

_May-ya-hi! May-ya-hu! May-ya-ho! May-ya-ha-ha!  
May-ya-hi! May-ya-hu! May-ya-ho! May-ya-ha-ha!_

'Ooooh, I love this one!' said Rachel, and she joined the other cheerleaders near the front of the stage. Mary seemed much more comfortable in the spotlight that Grimm did, but he didn't falter. They started singing the O-zone version of the lyrics. Grimm's voice went well with the song, though Kim felt an inward satisfaction that her own voice sounded much better.

_Hello, Salud, it's me your Duke  
And I made something that's real  
To show you how I feel  
_

_Hello, Hello, it's me Picasso  
I will paint my words of love  
With your name on every wall_

_When you leave my colors fade to gray  
I need your love to stay or All my colors fade away  
Every word of love I used to say  
Now I paint it everyday..._

The chess club played the music almost flawlessly, obviously it was one of their favorite riffs. They threw themselves into it with such gusto that even though they looked ridiculous with their mis-matched clothes, their thick glasses and gangly physiques, Kim found her foot tapping in time to the beat.

Beside her, Monique was nodding too, a faint smile on her face. 'Nerds got moves.' she said simply.

Kim saw a sour look on Donnie's face as the assembled students clapped in time to the music and many were dancing the 'Chicken Little' dance in a line in front of the stage. Donnie was obviously miffed that the students were enjoying the number, and he glared at the stage in a manner that would have made Bonnie proud.

_I sold my strings, my songs, and dreams__  
And I bought some paints to match the colors of my love  
__Hello, Hello, it's me, Picasso  
I will spray my words of my love  
With your name on every wall_

Monique had actually joined the line of dancers and was whooping it up with the rest of the Riddleton students. Kim smiled, but was touched by the awkweirdness of the scene. It was just a normal dance with normal students having fun the way normal students would - despite the fact that one of the singers on stage was someone she utterly despised. In any other circumstance she might be out on the floor with Ron, and wouldn't have even minded if he broke into his bon-diggity dance.

And as she stood alone on the sidelines, she was suddenly struck by how much she missed him. The repeat chorus triggered a great pang of loneliness that she couldn't suppress.

_When you leave my colors fade to gray  
I need your love to stay or All my colors fade away  
Every word of love I used to say  
Now I paint it everyday_...

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_Rhonda and Ron were dancing as well as they could without having a floor beneath them. The shadowy forms of the other students swirled around them like leaves in a storm, hazy and indistinct, but visible. A number of them passed through Rhonda and Ron as they moved._

_'Watch where you're going, pal!' said Ron, even though he knew only Rhonda could hear him. He was trying to stay close to Kim, and he was surprised to see she wasn't dancing at all, but merely standing off to the side with an expression that looked pained._

_But Rhonda only had eyes for Grimm. 'I never thought he'd actually get up on stage.' said Rhonda, smiling. 'That was sweet of him...' All that day long, Rhonda had been able to more or less see Grimm. And there were brief instants in which she thought he could see her. She tried waving up at him on stage while the Chess Club went into the song's breakdown, and didn't see Ron following after Kim, who had suddenly wiped her eyes and darted to the nearest doorway._

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Grimm froze, looking out into the crowd, sure that he had seen Rhonda weaving in and out among the other dancers, but they were so compressed and jumbled together along with the blinking lights and strobes that he was baffled. Cousin Mary had to nudge him before he remembered it was time for the final chorus.

_When you leave my colors fade to gray  
I need your love to stay or All my colors fade away  
Every word of love I used to say  
Now I paint it everyday_

Kim heard the words while she stood alone in the hallway, her face buried in her hands. 'Ron...' she sobbed quietly. 'I miss you....'

_Ron stood by her side, trying to put a comforting hand on her shoulder, but like always, he passed through her like empty smoke. He could only stand there, watching awkwardly as she wiped her eyes, composing herself before going back into the gym._

The song had ended, and Cousin Mary was taking exaggerated bows with the rest of the chess club as loud applause rippled through the gym. But Grimm had quit the stage almost as soon as the music ended, trying to blend back into the crowd.

But he wasn't fast enough to escape Donnie, who was there next to him just as Kim was returning to the dance floor. 'Nice riffs, Probable.' Donnie's sneering voice. 'A little behind the times though - kind of like you.'

Grimm ignored him, getting a drink from the refreshment table, though his eyes were narrowed.

'So where's the queen geek?' Donnie went on. 'Usually she's there helping you make a fool of yourself. Left you stag tonight? Or did you finally wise up and ditch her?' His eye strayed to Kim, looking her over with a barely visible leer. 'It sure looks like you've traded up....'

Grimm snorted, rather than smirking like he normally did. 'Rhonda will be back soon enough,' he said, and there was a harsh edge in his voice. 'So feel free to make a move on the trade-up, if you think you haven't already put her off with your Neanderthal impersonation....'

The comeback seemed to sting Donnie, and his voice became even more snide. 'I never understood you, Probable - wasting time with deadweight like Fatigable.'

Grimm's expression became cold. 'She's _not_ deadweight.' he said, his voice low and dangerous.

Kim could feel the tension brewing simply because the banter was like what she experienced with Bonnie nearly every day. But she sensed a lot more anger behind it and tried to defuse things before they went any further. 'Listen Stoneport, if you're trying to impress me with this tough guy act, forget it. I already said I don't even _like_ Grimm. Plus I've got a boyfriend waiting for me at home...'

But Donnie didn't seem to hear her. He seemed more intent now on needling Grimm than anything else. 'If you don't like the word deadweight, how about _freak_?' he said. 'You think I haven't seen her sitting in your stupid training yard, talking to animals like she's some kind of Disney princess? Well it figures she'd have to talk to animals since no one _human_ likes her...'

It happened so fast that Kim could barely see it. In one smooth motion, Grimm had put Donnie into a hammerlock and slammed him down on the table, scattering several cups of punch and upturning a plate full of cookies.

Grimm's look of cocky non-concern was gone, replaced with a snarling expression of rage. Donnie's arm was bent to hyperextension and Kim could hear the faint sound of tendons and muscle tissue on the verge of snapping. The other students had backed away, leaving them in a small circle.

'_Apologize!'_ Grimm hissed.

Donnie was struggling, but it was clear the pain in his arm had nearly paralyzed him. 'Let... _go_!' he said. 'What are you, crazy?' He winced as his arm was twisted further - his right hand bent so far behind his back that he could have touched his left ear.

The band had faltered and stopped playing. Enrique stepped forward, putting a hand on Grimm's shoulder. 'Senor Grimm,' he said quietly, 'Don't do this - Rhonda would not have wanted...'

Grimm's teeth were gritted. 'You're gonna take _back_ what you said about Rhonda!' he growled. 'Or I'll _break _it!' Donnie cried out in pain.

Kim joined Enrique, putting her own hand on Grimm's other shoulder and pulling. 'Grimm, _stop it_!' she said.

Kim's voice seemed to break through to him, and Grimm relaxed his hold. Donnie rolled out from underneath him, turning and breathing heavily while massaging his arm and shoulder. 'You're a _freak_ job Grimm!' he said, glaring. 'Just like your loser GF....'

Grimm started forward again and Donnie flinched. 'You're just lucky a _girl _was here to save your bacon.' he said. Grimm looked around at the silent and staring crowd. 'Well, get back to your dancing!' he said finally, then he turned to the next student band on stafe. 'And what are you guys waiting for? Applause?' Then he stormed out of the gym, slamming the door behind him.

Slowly, the music resumed and the other students started dancing again. But all of them were muttering, some of them casting looks at Donnie. Donnie was angrily brushing brownie crumbs from his white tuxedo jacket and inspecting the punch stains. 'You're going _down_ for this Probable,' he growled to himself. 'You can kiss your spot on the team good-bye...' But he winced and flinched as he heard a voice behind him.

'_Stoneport_!'

Kim, Monique and Enrique saw Donnie turn slowly to face Ms. Darken. Again, most of the other students retreated. 'Hello teach...' said Donnie, his voice putting on an air of bravado. 'Great dance...'

But he trailed off. Ms. Darken's eyes were blazing as she stared at him, though the look that darted between them was like knives made of ice. 'Follow.... _me_...' she said, and she turned, walking through an aisle of students that had practically jumped out of her way. As Donnie followed after her, the students made soft 'Ooooh' sounds which rose and fell in pitch. Donnie glared at them angrily.

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Grimm didn't look back, but strode down the mostly dark and empty hallways until he lost track of how long he'd been walking. He had initially headed for the parking lot, intending to get on his bike and drive home, until he remembered that the _Ksikkihkíni_ was back at his house.

So he continued threading through the hallways, trying to walk off the raw anger he'd felt surging inside him because of Donnie's words. Ms. Darken's patrols kept the halls fairly clear of wandering students or trouble-makers. He found himself making his way to Rhonda's locker, and he froze. Standing in the darkness, he could see the silhouette of a girl who looked like she was dialing the combination lock - she had long hair, and the clothes... looked like _mission clothes_.

'Rhonda...!' he said, but he blinked, and even as he did so, the figure seemed to melt into the vague shadow shapes that engulfed the entire hall. He looked around, his head whirling, but he was alone. Or so he had thought.

_'Probable!'_

The harsh crack of Ms. Darken's voice cut through him as he heard the rhythmic _clack_ of her approaching high heeled shoes. 'Yes, Ms. Darken.' he said, his voice flat. But he wasn't looking at her - he was keeping an eye on Rhonda's locker, flustered by what he thought he'd seen.

'You disrupted the Rehearsal Dance with that boorish display.' she hissed. '_Explain_ yourself.'

Grimm frowned, because even _he_ wasn't sure why he'd done it. Normally, he ignored Donnie's pathetic sniping. But somehow tonight... 'I was just minding my own business.' he said. 'He got in my face and... pushed the wrong buttons.' Grimm said, shrugging, but knowing this answer would hardly satisfy Ms. Darken.

And he was right. She was glaring at him as if she'd just heard the lamest joke in the world. 'I don't want to have to throw you off the gymnastics team.' she said, looking almost hawk-like. 'But I can't ignore this sort of behavior. It's detention for you, Mr. Probable. Every Friday night until the end of the school year. A kid who has time to pick fights at dances obviously has so much time to spare that he doesn't need his Friday evenings free.'

'So you want to punish me? Fine.' he said impatiently. 'Where's the punishment for Donnie for bad-mouthing Rhonda in the first place? Or are you gonna let him skate on that?'

'No.' said Ms. Darken, 'As a matter of fact, he is also slated for detention. I'm already planning a series of delightful projects for the both of you to perform - side by side - in which you will hopefully learn the value of teamwork. If you wish to graduate on time, you will serve these detentions. Your missions will _not _be accepted as an excuse.' And she turned and walked away, leaving Grimm alone in the hall.

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The dance ended at ten without any further troubles. Ms. Darken pronounced the evening 'satisfactory' and dismissed them with orders to return to their homes immediately. A number of students said good night to Kim as they filed to their cars through the parking lot. Kim remained outside the car with Enrique and Monique for some time, craning their necks over the heads of the other students and trying to catch sight of Grimm. He hadn't been seen since he stormed out of the gym.

It was only when there were a couple of cars left in the lot that she decided to give up. Enrique protested, but Kim shrugged it off. 'If he wants a ride home, he can beep me.' she said. 'I'm not searching the school for him if he can't find his way out.'

When they got to Enrique's house, he turned to Monique. 'It is traditional to give one's date a good-night kiss..' he said hopefully.

'I _wasn't_ your date!' she said wearily. 'We said that before we got in the car - good night, home-boy!'

Enrique sighed longingly, but slid out of the backseat and closed the door behind him, backing slowly up the walkway leading to his front door and blowing kisses towards them.

As Kim drove away towards Rhonda's house, she couldn't hold back a smile. 'You know, he's not that bad.' she said. 'And he _is_ kind of cute. You could give him a chance...'

'Shut _up_ girlfriend - you know I can't take him home with me.' said Monique quietly, though Kim thought she saw a smile flicker at the edge of her lips.

_**Part IV: Switching Places**_

Kim tried to tell herself that the evening was over, but every time she didn't know where Grimm was she got suspicious. 'I'm gonna check over at his house.' she said, after they had gotten to Rhonda's. 'Shouldn't take long.'

'Checking on him?' said Monique. 'Don't tell me you care?'

'As _if_.' Kim said with a laugh. 'Go ahead and turn in, I'll be back soon.'

She made her way to the Probable's through the darkness and checked the small depression at the base of the house which marked the only window into Grimm's basement room. There was no light on. She went around towards the backyard, thinking that he might be in the training yard. But as she neared the back fence which led to the grassy path and the training yard, she heard soft music from one of the tall trees in the backyard.

She stepped softly through the grass and looked up, seeing a treehouse nestled in the lower branches. She sniffed, finding a small ladder of boards nailed into the tree trunk. _'Typical boys.' _she thought as she climbed up quietly. _'Why do they all want treehouses when they're younger?'_

She went through an open trap door in the floor of the treehouse and saw Grimm kneeling at a rail which had a spectacular view through the tree branches of the night sky and the silvery moonlight beyond. But Grimm was hunched over, his head bowed and his hands clenched around the railing as if he were in pain. On a rickety table made of roughly sawn planks was an mp3 player and speaker. It was playing the _Aniron_ theme from Fellowship of the Rings. The musical, echoing voice spread through the treehouse.

It was then Kim saw that Grimm was crying. His fingers trembled around the railing, his teeth were gritted and his eyes were squeezed shut as if he were trying to block the tears which rolled down his face. Kim felt momentarily uncomfortable, but also a dark satisfaction at the sight. Grimm Probable - her iron-boned tormentor - weeping in the moonlight.

'Rhonda was working for _months_ planning to play that stupid song at the dance. And she never got to...' he said, his voice shivering. Kim stared. He hadn't turned, and she had been as quiet as possible, but he had still heard her. She didn't answer, not knowing what to say.

'A while ago I'd have given anything to see her again.' he went on. 'Now I'm seeing her _everywhere_ - and it's driving me crazy! I swear even now I can smell that shampoo she always uses... I know she's close, but I still can't find her.' He paused, and his voice was trembling as he spoke again. 'Is this how it felt when I took Ron away from you?'

Kim remembered that day. The day Grimm had kidnapped Ron and used the Attitudinator on him. And the evil triumph that had been in his eyes when he'd led her to Ron, so she could find him twisted and changed into Zorpox the Conqueror. 'Yes.' she said.

A silvery glint shone in the moonlight as a tear fell from his chin onto the railing. 'It _tanks_.' he said.

All the anger she'd felt towards Grimm, mostly ignored while they teamed up to find Monkey Fist, now boiled back to the surface. The desire for justice, for revenge, swept back into her heart like a missing treasure and she reveled in his misery. 'Does it hurt, Grimm?' she said, 'Does it feel like someone tore your heart out and made you watch while they stomped on it and laughed?'

'_Yes_.' he said.

_'Good_.' Kim said, her eyes narrowed. 'Now maybe you'll think twice before you do it to anyone else.'

Grimm looked up at her, dark circles under his eyes. 'I thought you were supposed to be the good guy.' he said. 'That doesn't sound like something a hero would say.'

Kim glared. 'Are you expecting _sympathy_ from me?' she hissed. 'After everything you've done?'

Grimm's face was hardening again. 'No.' he said. 'I tutored you too well in cruelty to expect that.' He turned looking out at the moon again. 'So this is what the Great Bear Spirit meant when he said a price was required. He said that fighting for a noble cause would feel like poison to me - but that I stood on the threshold of a new world. With his power, he infected Rhonda with compassion and kindness - and because of her it's infected me too!'

He sank over the rail again, his forehead leaned against the rough wood. _'Katasistsikoowa_....' he said, and his voice broke. He struck the rail with his fist. For some time, he said nothing. Then finally his spoke again.

'I'm glad you learned your lessons from me, Possible.' he said bitterly. 'We won't be able to stop Maze or Monkey Fist unless at least one of us is as ruthless as they are. You're going to have to be the ruthless one from now on.'

And he walked past her, climbing back down through the trapdoor and walking towards the house. Kim stayed there for a few seconds. The feeling that she had finally scored a genuine hit against Grimm gave her a heated sense of satisfaction. _'Serves him right,'_ she thought angrily. _'If he wasn't a tool for every villain in the world, he wouldn't have wound up in this mess - or dragged me into it with him And now that one of his schemes has come back to bite him, he wants me to clean up his mess and bail him out? I'll bail him all right - straight into Cell Block D with Dementor...'_

She made her way back down and saw that Grimm had actually left the garage entrance open. She couldn't stop her detective's curiosity, and sneaked into the house, creeping through the dark hallways. The light leading into the study was still on, and she paused just outside the door, peering in and hearing two voices.

Mr. Probable was standing there, his arms folded, his face impassive. '...just got an interesting call from Ms. Darken.' he was saying. Grimm didn't answer. 'She said that you attacked Donnie in the gym during the dance, and that you and he will be serving detentions together. Is this true?'

Grimm nodded curtly. 'Yes, sir.' he said.

Mr. Probable's face was hovering between stony and angry. 'You have to be smarter than that, boy.' he said. 'Haven't I taught you _anything_? What have I always said to you? When you're facing an opponent who isn't using physical force...?'

Grimm sighed, looking sulky. 'Don't get violent - get information.' he said.

'And what did Donnie do to make you forget that?'

Grimm glared into his father's eyes, looking both defiant and defensive. 'He insulted Rhonda.'

'What did he say?'

'He called her a freak!'

'Is he right?'

Grimm looked angry. '_No_!' he said quickly.

'If you're sure he was wrong then why did you attack him? Did you think other people would believe him?'

Grimm muttered, looking away. Mr. Probable's steely eyes narrowed. 'What's the other thing I always tell you? If there are people out there bad-mouthing you...?'

Grimm sighed again. 'Live your life so no one else believes them.' he said, sounding slightly ashamed.

'That's right.' Mr. Probable said. 'And because you couldn't remember that in the heat of the moment, you've supplied Donnie with weapons that he can use against you. Now he knows he can get under your skin by dissing your girlfriend.'

'What was I supposed to do? Just stand there and let him get away with it?' said Grimm, his face flushing.

Mr. Probable shook his head. 'No. _Never_ let them get away with it. But never let them know they got to you.' His eyes softened slightly and he put his hand on Grimm's shoulder. 'Look son, I know Donnie's a pain. But I told you to never lay hands on him for a reason. There are going to be people like him in almost every phase of your life, and you have to practice devising ways to deal with them without using your kung-fu. If you use violence every time someone pops up and annoys you, then you're no better than a street punk.'

Grimm didn't look up. 'Sorry, dad.' he said, his voice almost a whisper.

Mr. Probable patted him on the shoulder. 'It's all right, son.' he said quietly. Then he took in a breath and became more business-like. 'OK, we know the current situation.' he said. 'Now - we use it as an opportunity to practice your core _modus operandi_ - and that is....?'

Grimm nodded. 'Make your enemies use their own weapons against themselves.'

'You gave Donnie a weapon tonight - now he knows that to get to you, he just has to insult Rhonda. What does that mean?'

Grimm looked thoughtful. 'He'll definitely try it again.' he said.

Mr. Probable nodded. 'Now - is he _really _insulting Rhonda when he does it?'

Grimm raised his head, his eyes narrowed in concentration. 'No.' he said. 'He couldn't care less about Rhonda - he's doing it to insult _me_.'

Mr. Probable nodded again. 'Right. And if he's resorting to dragging a third party into a dispute between the two of you, it means...?'

Sudden understanding seemed to dawn on Grimm's face, and the look of cunning returned. 'It means that he's either run out of things to say about me, or he's too stupid to think of anything new.'

Mr. Probable looked intently at Grimm. 'Which _means_...?'

Grimm's smirk crept back into place. 'He's acting like he's _threatened _by someone he doesn't even care about.'

'Which _means_?'

'Advantage - Probable.' he said quietly.

Mr. Probable smiled. 'Took a while this time, but you got there.' he said. 'Now the next time he tries it, you'll be ready.'

Grimm smiled, not looking like the cunning schemer, but like an errant teenager grateful for a father-to-son chat. 'Thanks, dad.' he said.

Mr. Probable waved, smiling faintly. 'Don't get all schmaltzy on me.' he said, but he sounded mellow when he said it. 'Just do what you normally do - and make me proud.'

Kim had watched the entire scene from the shadow of the doorway, her mouth hanging open in disbelief. There were a whole _family_ of users. She quickly retreated the way she had come in and made her way back to the Fatigable house. If Grimm was flaking out over Rhonda, then the burden of hunting down Monkey Fist was mostly hers now. She started going over all their failed attempts in her mind, trying to devise new methods they might not have tried yet. She made a mental note to contact Wade tomorrow. Maybe he'd been able to cull more intel after the incident with the Ubergolem...

_**Part V: Crossroads**_

Grimm slumped into his computer chair, pulling off his tie. He wanted to go to sleep, but he wondered if even then he would get any peace - or if another phantasm of Rhonda would torment him in his sleep, ever present, but always just beyond his reach. His computer beeped four times and the monitor flickered on. 'What's the sitch, Jade?' he said.

'Incoming call.' she said, and she looked unusually grave.

Grimm shook his head. 'I already said - I'm not taking any more clients until...'

'It's Monkey Fist.' said Jade.

Grimm froze. A cocktail of emotions boiled inside him as he tapped his finger on the desk. 'Put it through.' he said at last. 'But quadruple the anti-tracing. He's probably trying to find us with their Jammer.'

'Ya _think_?' said Jade with a faint grin.

'And if you can manage it, trace the call back to _them_.' he said quietly, putting a small plug into his left ear. 'Let me know through the bug if they're zeroing in on me.'

'Leave it to me.' she said, cracking her knuckles. Then she blipped out, and he was staring face to face with Monkey Fist, who had a calm, relaxed expression on his stony face.

'Master Probable,' he said, his voice oozing with charm. 'Are Possible and her friends listening in?'

'No.' said Grimm, his voice low.

'Good.' Monkey Fist said. 'I've decided it's time for you and I to discuss certain things.'

Grimm wanted to shout at Monkey Fist, or threaten him, but his mercenary instinct for more information won out over his anger. 'What do you want?'

'This misguided alliance you've made with Kim Possible - it's become quite a nuisance.' he answered, shaking his head with exaggerated sadness.

'I wouldn't have teamed up with her at all if you'd played it straight with me from the start.' Grimm said angrily. 'Instead you joined up with Maze and took it out on my girlfriend.'

'And in retrospect, that may have been rash.' Monkey Fist said, spreading his petrified hands. 'So I've come to offer you a _deal_.'

'Deal?' Grimm said, laughing. 'What kind of _deal_?'

Monkey Fist took on a devil-may-care expression, looking off to the side and twirling his finger. 'Oh don't mistake me, it's been fun watching you and Possible scramble around, trying to catch us. But I think you understand by now that you haven't done much more than annoy us. Our plans are still firmly on schedule, and the conclusion is inevitable.'

'If you're so sure of that, why call?' said Grimm. 'Unless your 'plan' isn't as stable as you're letting on...'

'You'll fish no answers or hints from me, Probable.' said Monkey Fist. 'I called you - for want of a better description - for old times sake. You once served well as my student, and admirably carried out tasks for me as a mercenary. But if you remain on Possible's side, you'll be trodden under foot. That would be a great pity.'

'What are you suggesting?' said Grimm.

'Deliver Kim Possible to us.' he said, his expression now harder than the stone of his face. 'You're a clever boy - we could easily arrange for you to 'find' us on another of our raids. You need only supply a push, a trip or a nudge at just the right time... we would handle the rest.'

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Jade had hacked dozens of high security systems over her time working with Grimm. She'd dueled a few times against Wade, trying to out-hack him. But going up against the Ultra-Atmospheric Jammer was unlike anything she'd tried before. She had dozens of fake grids set up everywhere to misdirect and repel any tracking or tracing programs from any source. No one had ever broken through her first layer of defenses.

Yet despite her re-writing code and re-routing signals totally on the fly, the Jammer had wormed it's way through the first layer, tracing the call and closing in on them. She didn't believe for a minute that Maze or Monkey Fist was directing the effort - which left only one person. Dr. Drakken. She tried to remember everything she could from the intel she'd gathered on him during their mercenary work - tried to put herself in his shoes to anticipate what he might try next in his attempts to track them down...

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'Why should I help you after what you did to Rhonda?' said Grimm.

'Well asked.' said Monkey Fist. 'I know our methods at the beginning were... a bit rough. And you're rightfully upset - but that can all be rectified. Assist us in capturing Kim Possible and her friends, and you will be greatly rewarded.'

'You've blown all your money already.' said Grimm. 'And you destroyed your own manor. There's nothing you can offer me.'

Monkey Fist looked annoyed for a moment, but it passed. 'Those were merely... investments for my current plans. Rest assured, the entire _world_ will be in our power soon - and a great portion of it's riches could soon be dancing at your heels...'

There was a tense silence. 'What about Rhonda?' said Grimm. 'You banished her as part of your 'plan'. I want her back!'

Monkey Fist nodded. 'Perfectly understandable,' he said. 'And in exchange for your assistance... I think something could be arranged.'

'Liar.' said Grimm, shaking his head. 'I already had a chat with Maze in Basalton. '_Cannot be undone'_ were the words I think he used.'

'And at that time, he was right.' said Monkey Fist smoothly. 'But our powers are growing every day - and with the good Dr. Drakken's aid, they will grow even more. Once our power is established over the people of the world - who knows what their limits might be? I think we can eventually bring back your precious _girlfriend_.'

'Then what about your partner?' Grimm growled. 'I know he's right there listening. He _hates_ Rhonda - so how does he feel about this deal you're proposing? You expect me to believe he's ready to help bring Rhonda back?'

Monkey Fist was waving his hand airily. 'Oh, all he wants is to rule his own people and take back the land he says is rightfully his.' he said. 'When he thought the only way he could do that was with the power of this 'Great Bear', of course he lost patience when Rhonda somehow usurped it...'

'She didn't _usurp_ anything, the Great Bear chose her!'

'Potato, po-tah-toe....' said Monkey Fist with another wave, 'The point is Maze understands now that he doesn't _need_ this Bear Power to achieve his ends. Our plan will work with or without it. And since he doesn't need the Great Bear's power... there's no reason to keep Ms. Fatigable imprisoned.' His lip curled into a smile. 'Besides,' he said, 'Don't tell me you've _enjoyed_ being Possible's stooge. I'm offering you a chance for untold riches, to be reunited with your companion, and get rid of Possible in the bargain.'

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Jade grimaced as her second layer of defenses was breached. Like a blip of energy soaring and zagging it's way through lines of wires and circuitry, she monitored the Jammer's progress in isolating frequencies, cracking codes and homing in on their signal. All thoughts of trying to trace Monkey Fist back to his lair was abandoned. It was all she could do simply to slow down the Jammer's relentless advances.

_'Hurry up, G-Man...'_ she thought, typing madly across three keyboards. Her third tier of defense was crumbling...

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Grimm's mind buzzed, though he did his best to keep his face flat and expressionless. It was possible that Monkey Fist was lying, he thought. All of Monkey Fist's words could be nothing but smoke and mirrors to distract him while they used the Jammer to track him down and petrify the whole neighborhood. But there was also a flicker of doubt in his mind. What if there really was a way to bring Rhonda back? And if Monkey Fist and Maze were given free reign with their powers, wouldn't the smart course be to get on their good side? To be ready to stand beside them as an ally - so he could benefit from their powers when they took over?

Monkey Fist was offering him something solid he could hold onto for getting Rhonda back. It was something much more easy to believe in than the Great Bear's cryptic hints and vague suggestions.

And all he had to do was help them capture Kim - who he didn't like anyway. He hadn't gone through anything weirder or tougher than the last two weeks of trying to play 'nice' with Possible and her gang of dewy-eyed idealists. He reflected for a moment. Monkey Fist was right. It would be child's play to simply stay a step or two behind Kim the next time they encountered Monkey Fist - she was so trusting - then when her back was turned...

And why shouldn't he? Possible had made no secret of the fact that as soon as the mission was over, she was going to try and have him arrested. She was still sneaking around behind his back, trying to gather evidence, trying to contact the police. If it was a question of double-crossing, wasn't he justified in making sure that Kim went down first?

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_Ron was watching the entire exchange from behind Grimm's shoulders. 'Dude!' said Ron, 'That is... cold!'_

_Rhonda was squinting. After Grimm had summoned the Great Bear, he had seemed clearer and clearer to her in the visions she had experienced. But now as she watched him listening to Monkey Fist's offer, he seemed to be growing fainter and more distant, fading into the shadows that surrounded her._

_'Grimm...?' she called out, but he seemed to become steadily more distant. 'Grimm?'_

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'What say you, Probable?' Monkey Fist drawled, seeming to know that Grimm found the offer tempting. 'With your help - we can_ all_ get what we want. Do we have a deal?'

Grimm's voice was heavy as he answered. 'You had your chance to play it straight with me in the UNIT labs.' he said. 'But you thought it would be more fun tie me up, leave me for the cops and banish my girlfriend to another dimension! Next time you want my _help_ - think twice before you turn my life into your punching bag!'

Monkey Fist frowned. 'I take it then - you're refusing my generous offer?'

'You and Maze better enjoy whatever it is you're cooking up while you can.' Grimm said. 'I've told my clients from the get-go - if you double-cross us, all bets are off. If you thought I was skilled when I was working for you, just wait till you see what I can do when I'm working _against_ you!'

'You're making a great mistake...' Monkey Fist started.

Jade's voice buzzed in his ear. 'Just broke through the last tier! They'll find us in five sec...'

Grimm reached up and clicked the mouse button, closing the video link. He leaned back in his chair, putting his hand over his eyes and sighing.

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_Rhonda sighed in relief as Grimm seemed to suddenly come back into clear view. She also felt somehow closer to him. Despite how glum and troubled he looked, she felt an unaccountable sense of relief. It was as if they had both been driving towards a forked road with one path leading to a flowery meadow, the other into a creepy forest, and Grimm had veered towards the meadow at the last second. 'I donno what happened just then,' she thought, 'But it felt kinda nice...'_

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Maze stared at Monkey Fist while Dr. Drakken popped up from behind a computer console, pulling off a microphone headset. 'That's it - transmission's broken!' said Drakken.

'Well?' said Monkey Fist. 'Did you find them?'

'Just a second...' Drakken answered. 'Final data is coming through... There! According to the instruments, Probable's house is located at... 90 degrees north latitude and 180 degrees west longitude!'

Monkey Fist covered his face with a large, stony hand. 'The _North Pole_.' he said. 'I suppose that's his idea of a parting joke.'

'I'm not laughing.' said Maze. 'Your attempt to 'bribe' him into revealing himself has failed.'

'It was worth a try.' said Monkey Fist, shrugging. 'And I think he found the offer more appealing than he let on. If we're lucky, he'll change his mind. And if not... then he will truly join Possible in defeat.'

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Grimm pulled the mini-microphone out of his ear as Jade's face blipped back onto the computer screen. 'I just managed to head them off.' she said. 'If they follow the data, they'll have fun looking around for Santa's Castle, but they won't find us.'

'Nice work Jade.' Grimm said quietly.

'I heard what he was offering.' said Jade. 'Sounded like a good deal.'

'It was.' Grimm said.

'Not the kind of deal you'd normally throw back in someone's face.' Jade said.

'Yeah.'

'Grimm what's wrong with you?' she said. 'Picking fights with Donnie, turning down common sense deals, not to mention you've gone all _mopey_...'

'I don't know.' Grimm said.

Jade shook her head. 'A hint? A clue? _Anything_?'

'Nothing.'

For some time, there was silence. 'So... now what?' she said at last.

Grimm sighed, standing up. 'There's only one option left...' he said, and he left the room, leaving Jade blinking after him from the computer screen.

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The last thing Kim wanted before ending the day was another talk with Grimm. But as she got ready for bed, she heard a soft knock downstairs, and a few seconds later, Mrs. Fatigable was knocking on her door.

'Grimm's down in the kitchen.' she said. 'He says it's important.'

Kim put on a robe and made her way down where she saw Grimm sitting at the kitchen table, looking grave. He nodded to Mrs. Fatigable, thanking her before she left the kitchen.

'Now what?' she said.

'Get some bags ready for travel tomorrow.' he said. 'I have to take you to the Yamanouchi School.' His voice sounded as if he were speaking against his better judgment, or being pressed somehow.

'Why?' said Kim, suspiciously.

'I don't _know_.' said Grimm irritably. 'When I communed with the Great Bear, he told me that if I wanted to save Rhonda, I had to take you there.'

'You took your time telling me.' Kim said. 'Is there anything else you're holding back?'

'There's something you have to do there. He said you have to seek the wisdom of... the Mystical Monkey.' he ended, looking away sheepishly, as if he knew what he was saying sounded foolish.

'The... _what_?' Kim said.

'The Mystical Monkey.' Grimm said again. 'Don't ask me what it means, the Great Bear said it, not me.'

'Bear spirits... mystical monkeys...' said Kim, shaking her head. 'This is all _whacked out_!'

'Yeah.' said Grimm with a sarcastic snort. 'And _aliens_ living in Hawaii makes perfect sense.'

'What?' said Kim.

'Nothing.' Grimm said quickly. 'Look - all I know is the Great Bear said it was part of bringing Rhonda back, and probably Ron too. I don't understand how it's supposed to help. But the Great Bear came through in fighting that golem, so I'm hoping this Yamanouchi thing will eventually make sense too.'

Kim waited for a few seconds, thinking. 'That's it?' she said. 'No tricks? No double-talk, no winding trail of riddles? That isn't _like_ you.'

'I _know_.' he said, and he looked for a moment as he had in the treehouse, pained and helpless. 'It's not my first instinct, being _honest_ with you. But I couldn't.... I _can't_ keep it from you like I wanted to. That's just the way it is.'

There was more silence. After nearly a full minute, Grimm sighed. 'So how about it?' he said. 'I've got nothing to bribe or compel you with. It's all a leap of faith. I have no idea what will happen - but there's nothing else I can think of to try. Will you come?'

Kim didn't answer right away. She felt Rufus shifting position inside her hip pouch - Ron's pet. She'd been carrying him so long she'd gotten used to it, but it was still abnormal. Ron should be there, taking care of Rufus and just being _with_ her. 'Well...' she said at last. 'Ron always seemed to come away from Yamanouchi with something good at every visit. I guess... I'll see if that happens for me too.'

_Coming Soon:_

_Chapter 25_

_What is the only thing left when you remove the Ions from an interrogative?_


	26. Ch 25: Quest

A Friend In Darkness  
All Things Probable 3

A Kim Possible Fanfiction  
by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and its affiliates, etc. etc.

Chapter 25  
_Quest  
Or: Desperately Seeking Soothing_

**_Part I: There and Back Again - Again_**

Kim paused at the top of yet another rise along a winding mountain path. The view was spectacular, even at nighttime, with trees and other vegetation lined thickly above and at the side of the ragged cliffs. In the distance, she could see more high mountains, and saw the white foam of waterfalls. The wind sighed through the near and distant leaves with a hissing rattle, adding to the lonely feeling that permeated the empty path. Except she wasn't alone.

'Come on slowcoach, we're almost there.' came a grim voice.

Kim scowled and adjusted the heavy pack on her shoulders. 'I know, I've _been_ here before.' she said. 'I don't need you to _tell_ me where Yamanouchi is.'

'Then pick up the pace.' said Grimm impatiently. 'The sooner we get this over with the better.'

'Better for _who_?' Kim growled, trudging down the incline past the rise. 'You haven't even told me why we're here.'

'Yes I did.' Grimm shot back. 'We're here because the Great Bear told me to bring you here.'

'But _why_ do I need to be here?' Kim said.

'I told you that too, and the answer is still the same; _I don't know_.'

Kim winced as they approached a bend in the path near another dizzying cliffside. If this was a trick to lure her somewhere and push her off the edge, he'd had several chances already. She thought for a moment that maybe she could push _him_ off a cliff without anyone noticing. But, as she'd reasoned at the thought of using her Kung-Fu on Bonnie, she wouldn't want that on her permanent record. 'How long will I need to be here?' she said. 'Ms. Darken doesn't seem the type to ignore tardiness...'

'I squared that all before we left.' Grimm said. 'You'll be good for a couple days. If this takes longer, I'll see what I can do.'

Kim shook her head, trying to catch her breath. The air was a lot thinner on the mountaintops. 'So why couldn't Monique and Rufus come along?'

'I told you - the Great Bear didn't invite them. I'll look after them while you're here. We still can't send them back to Middleton. Monkey Fist knows she's been helping you out, and she'd be in just as much danger in the open as you would.'

'But what about....'

'Enough already!' Grimm snapped. 'What am I, your narrator? Let's just _go_.'

Kim glared at the back of his head, nearly obscured by the hiking pack he was wearing. She was having more and more doubts about this trip to Yamanouchi with every passing hour. It had seemed straightforward enough the first time she thought about it. She had been to Yamanouchi herself, asking for help from Master Sensei just after Ron had been banished. The elderly Kung-Fu master had a way of speaking and an air about him that she found reassuring, and she could understand why Ron seemed to respect him. And Yori.... well, she didn't like to think too much about Yori or why Ron might respect _her_.

But the morning after the Prom Rehearsal, she had packed and gone to the Riddleton airport with Grimm. During the flight to Japan, she had wondered more and more. She might have warned Sensei that she was coming, but neither she nor Wade had any way to contact them. Sensei had said he would contact _her_ if they needed her. And by the time they were half-way through the mountain hike to Yamanouchi, Kim was starting to think she should have stayed in Riddleton.

They rounded another bend, and came to the top of another rise, and there, nestled in the living rock near a mountain summit, was the Yamanouchi School. Still visible under the moonlight, the swaying rope and plank bridge leading from the cliff edge to the entrance moved lightly in the eddy of the mountain breeze. Behind the school, she could still see the dark hulk of the Yono Shrine, where Monkey Fist should have been, petrified and immobile.

She could see no one on the battlements of the castle-like walls, but from her past visits, she knew that the school was seldom unguarded. And indeed, as soon as they crossed the rickety bridge and reached the grounds surrounding the school, a deep voice called from above them.

_'Yamero!'_

Kim looked up, and saw Hirotaka standing on the battlements, as if he had remained there since her last visit. Grimm didn't speak, but stepped back a pace or two until Kim was ahead of him. 'Hirotaka,' she said. 'It's me, Kim!'

'Kim Possible.' he said with a faint smile. 'Welcome back to Yamanouchi. Your arrival was not unexpected.'

Kim smiled as well. 'Didn't you say the same thing the last time I was here?'

'I did.' he said. 'Your arrivals at this school are nearly always anticipated in some way, Possible-chan. Please enter and be welcome.'

Kim strode towards the gate entrance, then paused and looked back. Grimm still hadn't moved, but remained where he was, several paces from the gate. She glanced back up at Hirotaka and saw that he and Grimm were glaring at each other with expressions of repressed loathing.

'Aren't you coming?' Kim said.

Grimm shook his head. 'Not a chance.'

'Why not?'

'Because in case you didn't realize, my name's _mud_ at Yamanouchi.' Grimm answered. 'For some reason, they didn't take kindly to me stealing the Lotus Blade - _or_ helping Ron capture Sensei.'

'But you're the one who set this up.' said Kim. 'What if you're 'supposed' to be here too?'

'The Great Bear only said I had to bring you here.' he said, re-adjusting his pack. 'He didn't say anything about me _staying_.'

'You expect me to just leave Monique and Rufus with _you_...?' Kim protested.

Grimm sneered. 'Don't worry - I'll be too busy to hassle your loser friends. I've got detention with _Donnie_ to look forward to - plus Jade, Wade and I are still gonna be looking for Monkey Fist. I don't know what this Mystical Monkey stuff is all about, but it couldn't hurt to keep looking for non-mystical solutions while you're trying to touch the etheric plane.'

He turned his back and started back across the bridge towards the mountain path leading back down. 'Have fun, Possible.' he said flatly. 'And remember, the doors are made of _paper_.'

Hirotaka continued to glare after Grimm's retreating figure until he was a small dot at the far side of the bridge. Finally he seemed to remember that Kim was there. 'Come, Possible-chan.' he said. 'Master Sensei is waiting.'

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Kim crossed through the courtyard, which was mostly empty. Since it was night in Japan instead of the afternoon, most of the students were probably either asleep or getting ready to sleep.

Past the gong in the center of the courtyard, she saw the main building, and standing in front of it on the stairs was Master Sensei. He bowed his head as Kim approached, and she returned the gesture.

'Possible-chan,' he said in his deep, resonant voice, 'You have returned to the Yamanouchi School, as I knew you would.'

Kim blinked. 'Wait - you _knew_ I'd be coming back?' she said.

'Of course.' said the ninja master. 'I knew that bringing back the Chosen One would require more than simply tracking down Monkey Fist. When you left in search of him, I knew that your path would lead back here - for the path of true enlightenment is one eternal round.'

'Why didn't you tell me...?' said Kim, but even as she spoke the words, she knew what Sensei would say next.

'This _is_ my way of telling you, Kim Possible.'

Kim felt a stab of annoyance, but fought it down, wanting to show respect to Master Sensei since she needed his help. 'Yeah...' she sighed, running her hand across her forehead. 'Well - you were right. I have come back. And I need your help.'

'How may I assist you, Possible-chan?' he said kindly.

She chewed her lip for a moment, but couldn't think of any way to say it that didn't sound totally weird. 'Do you know anything about the Mystical Monkey?'

'Indeed I do, Kim Possible.'

Kim's mouth fell open. 'You _do_?' she said.

'Of course, Possible-chan.' he said, soothingly. 'This school was built in 338 AD by the legendary warrior Toshimiru, who used the Lotus Bade. The power of the Lotus Blade can only be unlocked by those who wield the Mystical Monkey Power. The great Toshimiru held that power, having gained it from the Mystical Monkey statues. Since the days of Toshimiru, only two others have been gifted with Mystical Monkey Power.'

'Monkey Fist - and Ron.' said Kim.

'Quite right.' said Sensei, and he gestured her towards the doors leading into the main building. She followed him, and was not surprised to see several stations set up for the practice of martial arts as they walked through the vast, pillared room lit with lamps and lanterns. 'Toshimiru was the original master of Tai Shing Pek Kwar. Many have not understood - since Kung Fu is a widely accepted to be of Chinese origins. The unlearned have marveled that a Tai Shing Pek Kwar master was prominent in Japan. But it was from Toshimiru that the art spread to China, where it became more widely known, and where it was given it's name.'

'I'm with you so far....' said Kim. 'But what about the Mystical Monkey?'

Sensei nodded as they passed out of the larger room and into a series of smaller rooms and corridors. 'Toshimiru did not merely build this school to teach the fighting arts - he made it as a center of study, knowledge and learning.' And Kim looked around as they entered what seemed to be a vast library, filled with scrolls, papers, books and other documents, all stacked and organized on dusty shelves. Sensei's voice became more muffled as he went on.

'In your own schools Possible-chan, I do not doubt you have been taught that energy cannot be created or destroyed - only changed from one form to another. If you accept that as truth, then surely you must have wondered - if the Monkey statues bestowed Mystical Monkey Power - from whence did the statues gain that power?'

Kim shrugged weakly, looking around the library. Everything was in wooden, earth tones, with soft light wreathed around lamps which hung from an ancient looking mezzanine. 'I.. just figured it was _magic_ or something.' she said.

Sensei smiled. 'And so it was - at least as far as magic can be understood. But like all forms of energy, even Mystical Monkey Power must have a source. And that source... is the Mystical Monkey.'

Kim didn't speak. Talking about mystical monkeys sounded even more ludicrous coming from Master Sensei than it did coming from Grimm, because Sensei was speaking about it in a voice that sounded _serious_. Grimm at least had seemed properly skeptical.

'Toshimiru was a disciple of the Mystical Monkey.' he said, 'He received great wisdom from him, as well as learning Monkey Kung Fu. And Toshimiru set up this school to honor the Mystical Monkey - to be a place where his wisdom might be studied, shared and passed on by those who were deemed worthy to understand.'

They had reached a smooth, wooden table with several candles set up, as well as a chair that looked uncomfortably hard. Sensei stopped here and regarded Kim seriously. 'I have my suspicions, Kim Possible. But tell me how you came to learn of the Mystical Monkey? His existence is a closely guarded secret of the Yamanouchi School, shared only with those who have taken the most dedicated oaths of loyalty. And why do you ask about him?'

Kim sighed. After hearing Sensei's speech, maybe her own story wouldn't sound so farfetched. She told him about Grimm's contact with the Great Bear Spirit, and of the Great Bear's mysterious advice. When she finished, Sensei nodded.

'I see.' he said. 'If you have come seeking wisdom, then wisdom is what you must seek. Before attempting to commune with the Mystical Monkey, you would do well to learn as much about Mystical Monkey Power as you can. There are many texts and documents here, which contain information that may be of value.' He gestured to the many shelves with their countless books and scrolls. He then turned and began walking towards the exit of the library.

And Kim realized, the table with its candles had been set up in advance for _her _use. She looked around wildly, and called out. 'Wait!' she said. 'This place is huge - where should I start?'

Sensei simply nodded to her. 'As with any great quest - the surest place to start is at the beginning.' Then he was gone, leaving Kim alone and feeling more intimidated by the innumerable tomes than she ever had when facing off with Shego.

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Wade helped Monique as she heaved a large rock across the threshold of the guest house at the Omo-sas. 'Couldn't... Enrique have helped?' Wade grunted.

'I'm not... callin' him!' Monique answered. 'He'll be following me around the rest of the day!' At last they managed to roll the beach ball sized stone onto a pad next to where Wade had set up some equipment. 'What do you need this big ol' paperweight for anyway?' she said.

Wade was picking out various scanning instruments, and a rock scraper. 'This is a chunk of the giant golem.' he said. 'I'm hoping I can analyze it and find a clue as to where it came from. If we can do that, we might find Monkey Fist.'

'Cool.' said Monique. 'How about Mr. Bad boy and hacker geekette?'

Wade chipped off a small fragment from the rock and slid it into a vial. 'Going to Japan isn't like a trip to the convenience store.' he said. 'I heard Grimm's not staying at Yamanouchi, but he still won't be back until later tonight, even if they get a supersonic flight. That gives me pretty much the whole day to work on this. Not much else for me to do at the moment. As long as Monkey Fist and Drakken have the Jammer, anyway.'

'So where's Jade? She not helping out?'

Wade bit his lip as he took another chip from the rock and fed it into a small grinder, collecting the powder into another vial. 'I'm... not sure where she is.' he said without looking at her.

Monique smiled. 'Look Wade - I'm not Kim, but I know awkweird when I see it. You can't keep avoiding Jade just because of the kiss - you're supposed to be keepin' an eye on her to make sure they don't pull any funny business.'

'I know...' he said sullenly.

Monique paused. 'Unless you're more down than you let on.' she said. 'Wade, did you really _like_ her? And now you're avoiding her because she turned you down flat?'

Wade didn't answer. He kept fiddling with the controls on one of the widgets he had set up on a desk.

Monique felt a sudden wave of sympathy. 'Oh, Wade...' she said, putting a hand on his shoulder.

'I know it would never work.' he said quietly. 'We live too far apart, we're too young, we really can't stand each other... Plus she's _evil_.' He sighed heavily. 'You think I'd be used to this after what you said to me on Valentine's Day. And you'd think as smart as I am, I'd have known better...'

'Love makes fools of us all, I guess.' said Monique.

'That's _'time makes fools of us all'_.' said Wade.

'I know.' she answered. 'But love does it faster.'

'Yeah...' Wade said. 'I guess it does.'

'Try and take tips from Enrique.' she said. 'That boy just keeps right on truckin'.'

'Maybe later.' said Wade, his smile returning. 'I've got to work on this for a while.'

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Meanwhile in her room, Jade was looking over a set of rough blueprints on one computer screen, while taking a video call on another. 'There's not much here.' she said.

Professor Dementor grimaced in the chat window his face occupied. 'When you consider my current circumstances Fraulaine Jade, you should be grateful I have moved so quickly! It is not easy to create proper designs while still in a prison cell. I have gone over my materials, and also looked over ze schematics for your detector device.'

'And?' Jade said.

'And... while your machine is crude, it was a good foundation on which to build.' he answered. 'If my calculations are correct, I should be able to design a device based on your machine which will not only detect any satellite taken over by ze Jammer, but prevent it from transmitting any outgoing signals - a counter-jammer, as it were.'

Jade's mouth fell open. It was more than she dared to hope. If it was true, it would allow them to stop Monkey Fist from using the Yono's power to hit remote targets. 'Your full-scale Jammer had the power to affect every satellite at the same time.' she said. 'Will we be able to as well?'

'Perhaps.' said Dementor. 'I will need to run more projections.'

'But we still won't be able to track the Jammer to it's source.' she said.

'It is a question of ze scale at which they use ze Jammer.' he answered. 'If they run it at full power on a global scale, then you should be able to find them. Of course, by then they could do a great amount of damage...'

'It's a start.' said Jade. 'Once you've run your tests and given us the specs, we'll have Leigh secure your release.'

'I look forward to it.' sad Dementor with a smile. 'I dismissed ze idea at first, but Herr Probable's suggestion of making my _own_ battle-suit is beginning to take root...' and he vanished from the screen.

Jade spent several minutes looking over the designs. They seemed solid, but she would need several sets of hands to make a prototype of decent size. She could always count on Grimm's sisters, and there was also Wade...

She pursed her lips uncomfortably. They'd been avoiding each other for some time, but soon they were going to have to get past it and work together. As long as he didn't try anything else...

And suddenly a thought flitted into her mind of the two of them working on the counter-jammer together, and another kiss being shared. His lips _had_ felt warm... and soft.... She had her chin in her hand, propped up on her desk, a faraway look stealing into her eyes.

'_Maybe if he hit the gym for a while....'_ she thought, but then slapped herself across the face and resumed her examination of Dementor's file.

**_ Part II: Book Smarts_**

As Kim was still going through jet lag, she hadn't felt tired as she read through the night. The candle flames flickered, making soft fluttering sounds as she continued to pore over page after page.

But as dawn rose, weariness crept in, and her head started nodding when she was brought back to awareness by the sound of a tray being set next to her.

'You have been here through the night, Possible-chan.' said Yori, pouring out tea and uncovering a dish of rice and vegetables. 'I was sent to bring you some refreshment.'

Kim wasn't much on Japanese food, but she was so hungry she didn't care. 'Thanks.' she said, fumbling with the chopsticks, but managing a clumsy mouthful.

Yori looked around at the jumble of parchments and scrolls which stretched across the tables. 'I hope your research is going well.' she said.

'Better than I expected.' Kim answered. 'I didn't know the Yamanouchi School kept _English_ texts in it's libraries. I thought I'd have to learn Japanese first.'

Our collection of texts is not as large as it seems.' said Yori, nodding. 'For the benefit of our many students, the original texts have been copied into several different languages. It is a task that our scholars and students have carried out gradually over the course of many years, but it has multiplied our library to the size you now see.'

'And I'm totally grateful.' Kim said. 'Otherwise I wouldn't be past page one. I've gone through dozens of scrolls, but they all say pretty much the same thing.' said Kim, shaking her head as she set aside yet another document. _ 'True wisdom comes from within.'_

Yori smiled. 'Yes.' she said simply. 'It is a riddle that many struggle with for long years.'

Kim immediately thought of Riddleton, and it's vast network of riddles which had been set up, seemingly just to befuddle everyone. And she wondered if Yori somehow knew more than she was letting on by casting this tedious study as a 'riddle'. _'Get a grip, Kim.' _she thought. _'You can't go through this whole caper thinking everything is a puzzle that needs solving.'_

She pushed aside a mound of paper that had collected in front of her, getting ready to put them back on the shelves. 'Well... I think I've learned all I can if that's the case.' she said out loud.

'That is just as well.' said Yori. 'It is Master Sensei's wish that you meet him in the main courtyard.' She put a box on the table in front of Kim. 'There is an empty room in the third dormitory - it is the same room which Stoppable-san used during his stay here. You may change in there. Come to the courtyard when you have eaten and are clad.'

Yori left as quietly as she had come in. Kim lifted the lid from the box, and picked up the intricately embroidered collar of a beautiful red kimono.

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She had to call Wade to figure out how to put on the kimono properly, but twenty minutes later, she stepped out into the courtyard. She passed by several organized bands of white-clad ninja practicing various techniques, including rope climbing, smoke bomb use, a shuriken target range and several kinds of Kung-Fu. A few of the male students who were sparring lost their concentration and wound up flat on their backs as they paused to look at Kim. She had to admit, she wished there was a camera handy. With her hair done up and the decorative sash in place, she thought she must cut an impressive figure.

Master Sensei was waiting by the large gong set near the center of the courtyard. 'Come with me, Kim Possible.' he said, and led her to the western edge of the courtyard, towards a building that was on a set on top of a square rise of several steps. It looked like many of the other dojos which were set up at Yamanouchi for the benefit of the students. But this one seemed more important somehow. Latticed walls, sturdy pillars and many decorations set this dojo apart, with intricate carvings all around and wind chimes hanging from each corner of the peaked roof. Like most buildings inside the grounds, it showed signs of damage from the Yono's attack - and also the signs of that damage having been carefully repaired.

Sensei stopped at the foot of the stairs. 'This was the personal meditation and training dojo of Toshimiru.' he said. 'Since the ancient days, this has been a shrine to those who seek the wisdom of the Mystical Monkey. It is said that he may still appear to those who are worthy.'

Kim looked up the stairs and into the interior of the dojo, which was too dim to see anything clearly. 'Are you saying I should go in?' she said. 'I'm a stranger - I'm not a member of your school. Wouldn't I be breaking some kind of taboo?'

'It is true you are not one of my students.' said Sensei gravely. 'But you are a friend of the Chosen One. And if Grimm Probable is not lying, then you have been specially summoned here by forces beyond the normal doings of even this school. As such, special exceptions have been made for you. Your stay in the library was a privilege normally reserved for our advanced students. And to visit this dojo is considered a high honor.'

And Kim understood why she had been asked to change clothes. This level of formality was to show her respect for being 'bumped ahead' of where other students might normally go. She felt humbled, but still didn't quite understand. 'What should I _do_?' she said.

Sensei pointed to her forehead. 'As you have labored to fill your mind with knowledge, now you must fill your heart with peace.' he said. He gestured to the building.

She followed Sensei into the dojo, adjusting her kimono. The inside was lined with ancient practice dummies. Brass censures hung from the ceiling next to more chimes. The walls were covered with the brush-like strokes of several Japanese talismans. The west side of the dojo had a bhudda statue set up between the pillars. The middle of the dojo was empty, set up as if for a sparring match. But in the very center there was a soft mat. Sensei gestured to the mat.

'Now... meditate, Kim Possible. Ponder what you have studied. Consider what I have told you. And perhaps you will find the wisdom you seek. Many students and many masters have meditated in this shrine over the centuries - but few have ever seen the Mystical Monkey.'

Kim approached the mat. 'Have you seen him?' she asked.

Sensei seemed to be smiling behind his flowing moustache and beard. 'Yes - I have.' he said.

Kim wanted to believe him - but it was all so fantastic. After all the things she'd seen over her many adventures, this just felt too _strange_. 'What did he say to you?'

Sensei raised an eyebrow. 'That, Kim Possible, is between the Mystical Monkey and myself.' Then he turned and left.

The dojo certainly had atmosphere. If she'd been asked to envision what an ancient Japanese dojo might look like, this was it. The dojo had a long-disused air like a museum, and everything in the dojo seemed like a museum piece, not to be touched for fear of an alarm going off. But it also had the air of a building that had once been a hub of great activity, now stilled and quieted.

She was afraid to touch anything, though she circled around the dojo several times, inspecting everything closely before returning to where the mat was set. The dojo was empty, and even the sounds of the students practicing out in the further courtyards seemed to have been cut off. But she saw nothing that looked enlightening or _mystical._

She sat on the mat and sighed, watching as the light from the sun gradually began to change from the dull orange of morning to the piercing white of day.

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Grimm stepped off the flight from Japan to find the _Ksikkihkíni _in short term parking where he'd left it. He'd left early in the morning from Riddleton with Kim, reached Yamanouchi at night by Japanese time, and returned home at nightfall by Riddleton time.

It was the one thing he really didn't like much about traveling, keeping track of what time it was in whatever country he wound up in. He'd missed the school day, but planned to pull an all-nighter to catch up, in addition to helping out Jade with tracking down Monkey Fist.

It hadn't been an easy term at school - even setting aside Rhonda being gone. With all the running around he'd done, he'd have to put in some serious studying before graduation. He mused as he drove home on the bike, wondering why he was even bothering with classes. He had enough money saved from his mercenary work. But the thought of both his parents giving him 'the look' for not graduating was enough to steel his resolve and plow through.

And he winced, for he'd just driven by the Stoneport house and remembered again that he also had Friday detentions, and the weekend was coming up fast....

**_Part III: The Mystical Monkey_**

Kim sat in the Lotus position, staring around at the burning censures of incense and the chimes which hung from every corner. She saw nothing else, and heard nothing but the occasional tinkle of the chimes.

Then she heard her Kimmunicator beeping. She had forgotten to shut it off, and the electronic beeps sounded somehow out of place in the ancient dojo. As nothing else was happening, she didn't think it would hurt to touch base with Wade, and nudged the decorative sleeve up her wrist. 'What's the sitch?' she said.

Wade's face glowed in the tiny screen on her wrist. 'So you got the kimono on all right.' he said. 'I guess you of all people should be wearing a _Kim_-ono. Where are you?'

'I'm 'meditating' in an old shrine at Yamanouchi.' she said, yawning. 'I've been here for nearly two hours.'

'Didn't mean to interrupt.' Wade said.

'You're not interrupting much.' Kim said, looking around again at the empty dojo. 'What's going on?'

'I just got finished analyzing the fragments of the giant golem.'

'And?'

Wade shrugged. 'I wish it could be like a detective show where I say 'this kind of rock only exists in one place'. But it's just plain, solid granite through and through. There's other kinds of rock marbled into it, but this composition of stone exists in nearly every part of the world. There's no way to trace it to any one location.'

'Figures.' Kim muttered. 'This whole caper has been like that - dead ends one after another. And it feels like I'm in another one right now.'

'So no _'Mystical Monkeys'_ have shown up?' said Wade.

'No.' said Kim. 'And I'm starting to think Grimm was just pulling my leg - _again_. Except that Master Sensei is playing along. I should be out looking for Monkey Fist - instead I'm sitting in a dojo trying to talk to an invisible monkey.' She shook her head. 'How am I supposed to 'commune' with a Mystical Monkey anyway? Am I supposed to say, '_hey Mystical Monkey' _or something....?'

'Hello.' came a voice behind her.

Kim yelped, whirling around. 'Kim?' said Wade. 'What's wrong?'

'I'll... call you later.' she said, and turned off the Kimmunicator.

Kim gaped, for there, seated in the lap of the bhudda statue, was a large monkey. It looked about the size of a young human being, though shorter since it was hunched over. It was dressed in an ornate robe, just like Sensei's. In it's hand it held a short staff, the tip of which was tied with a pair of decorative ribbons which trailed down like cobwebs. It's fur was brown with some white patches at the forearms and feet and around it's face. The face looked very old - wrinkled like a prune, and it had thick white sideburns that trailed down in front of it's ears.

But the eyes were very piercing and intelligent. The monkey stared at Kim, it's expression curious. 'Wh.. where did _you_ come from?' she said.

The monkey raised a bushy, white eyebrow. 'Hey - you in _my_ house, red!' it said, the voice sounding male, but rather squeaky, and he spoke with a very thick oriental accent. 'I ask the questions! I the Mystical Monkey. I heard you calling. So what's the deal?'

'You're.. _real?' _Kim stared in shock. This certainly didn't fit her idea of what the Mystical Monkey would look like, if he _was_ real. After reading the texts and scrolls she had studied about Mystical Monkey Power, she was expecting something..... different.

'Of course I _real_.' said the Mystical Monkey, getting down from his seat and sauntering over towards Kim with a lumbering gait. 'How 'bout _you_, Red? Are _you_ for real? Huh? Are you? _Are you_?' He started poking at her with his staff, jabbing her in the ribs and knocking her softly on the head. Kim flinched and fended him off for a few moments before he stopped poking. 'Ok, so we both know we real now.' he said at last. 'You came here to talk with me. So what's on your mind?'

Kim dredged the mission details back into her brain, fighting through her surprise. 'Sensei told me I should come to you for wisdom.' she said.

'Yeah, Sensei....' said the Mystical Monkey, rubbing his chin. 'He nice guy. Good fashion sense.'

'I need to know how to save Ron.' she said, but then stopped abruptly, wondering if the Mystical Monkey even knew who Ron was. The words _Chosen One_ and Ron just didn't seem to go together in her mind, but they sounded more mystical and formal. 'The Chosen One.' she went on. 'Can you help me?'

'Mmmm.' said the Mystical Monkey. 'I _could_ help. Thing is, you not the Chosen One. I wouldn't talk to you at all, but you very _close_ to the Chosen One. He think about you all the time.'

'He does?' said Kim, feeling a rush of happiness at the thought.

'Yeah, it kinda boring,' said the Mystical Monkey, shrugging his robed shoulders. 'Like watching the same movie over and over again. But you mean a lot to him, so I come when you call.'

'Then... you'll help me?' she said, her heart pounding with wild hope.

'Hey, I don't just _give_ my wisdom away, red!' said the Mystical Monkey, shaking a long, knobby finger. 'There will be a price.'

Kim frowned. She remembered that Grimm said the Great Bear had demanded a price from him in exchange for his strength - and that price had weakened him. She braced herself, thinking of Ron. 'Name it.' she said.

The Mystical Monkey stared at her. 'Nacos.' he said.

'What?' said Kim, baffled.

'The Chosen One - he always want to eat Nacos. All the time it 'naco naco naco'! I just wanna see what all the fuss is about!'

Kim stood dithering. 'Uh...' she said, realizing how stupid she sounded. 'I... don't have any here.' she said.

The Mystical Monkey waved at her dismissively. 'That my price, red. You make with the Nacos, then we talk!' He turned and tottered back towards the bhudda statue, walking around behind as if he were going to circle around it.

Kim rushed forward after him. 'Wait!' she called, rounding the statue. 'How do I....?'

But she stopped abruptly. In the brief instant in which the Mystical Monkey had passed out of her line of sight, he had disappeared. She leaned back and forth, checking both sides of the statue, but he was gone.

Kim emerged from the dojo and stepped blindly down the stairs, a dazed look on her face. Sensei was there, and he stared at her curiously. 'Kim Possible.' he said in his deep, soothing voice. 'What has happened? Have you made contact with the Mystical Monkey?'

Kim shook her head, seeming to come to herself. 'Y...yes.' she said.

Sensei nodded. 'And... what did he tell you?'

Kim looked bewildered, running a hand across her forehead. 'He... wants _Nacos_.' she said.

To her surprise, Sensei actually chuckled softly. 'I see he has not changed.' he said. 'When I first communed with the Mystical Monkey in my youth, he wanted me to bring him rice cakes before he would share his wisdom.'

Kim shook her head. 'But there isn't a Bueno Nacho anywhere _near_ Yamanouchi.' said Kim. 'By the time we got to one, made the order and hiked back they'd be stone cold. And when do they even open in Japan?'

'Do not fear, Kim Possible.' said Sensei, and he snapped his fingers. Two black-clad ninja appeared as if from nowhere, kneeling behind Sensei with their heads bowed. Sensei turned and nodded to them slightly. They nodded back, and then seemed to vanish as quickly as they'd appeared. He turned back to Kim. 'The entire resources of the Yamanouchi School are at your disposal in this matter. You will find a helicopter behind the rear courtyard, and it will be manned with pilots who will aid you in your noble quest... for Nacos.'

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Inside the hidden mountain lair, Dr. Drakken directed a small army. The labors were now moving fast. With the destruction of the Ubergolem, a number of the golems who had sculpted it were now free, and had swelled the numbers working on construction of the full sized Ultra-Atmospheric Jammer.

He even managed to settle into a routine which seemed to be working well - having the golems do the heavy lifting and metal bending for a while, and then making them back off so he could go in and do the fine-tuning, in addition to adding the circuitry, wiring and components. He felt for a while as if he were back in control of the Cupcake factories, with his henchmen working efficiently for a change.

Though the thought made him pause for a second. He'd been gone from his own lair for days now. As reliable and loyal as his henchmen normally were, he suspected they had all abandoned the lair - and assuming they'd left the front door unlocked, he was sure to have a big mess to clean up when he got back..

And that also made him wonder. _When_ would he be allowed back? Maze and Monkey Fist now had him working full bore on the Jammer, and they seemed to have given him free reign - though he was sure they had ordered Shegolem to keep an eye on him. With no communication allowed, and under the sleepless watch of the golems, he felt more like a captive than a partner.

He sniffed at their arrogance - they weren't even there watching over his efforts. They had taken a small number of golems and were engaged in what they said was 'another project'. But as far as Drakken had observed, this project had none of the scale or grandeur of the Ubergolem. They had simply been stacking boxes filled with massive numbers of small spikes like nails with the heads clipped off - millions of them.

And they had been using the computer monitors and Maze's shadow passages to transport these boxes. He'd caught glimpses on the monitors of several major cities across the world - Paris, Moscow, Washington, Peking and hundreds of others. Sometimes they had used the mini-Jammer, but always they had double-checked with Dr. Drakken to make sure that it was powered low enough to avoid detection by Wade. He caught occasional mutters between them about 'global saturation', and 'strategic locations', but nothing that led him towards any clear idea what their plan was.

He thought back to his own plan with the Diablo robots - and all the little parts of that plan which Shego had put up on a computer screen in an effort to try and guess his ultimate intentions. And he tried to apply the same reasoning while he worked on the full size Jammer.

_'Once the big Jammer is done, they can use it to take control of the world's satellites,'_ he thought as he welded parts and equipment in place on the superstructure of the Jammer. _'The threat of a global network outage would be enough to make a number of countries surrender... But what's with the nails then? Are they setting up little antennae all over the place to boost the Jammer's signals? So they can use Monkey Fist's petrifying gimmick against larger targets? No, they haven't taken long enough on any of their jaunts to do more than just dump the boxes and leave. Curious.... What's their final game I wonder?'_

Maze and Monkey Fist had promised him 'a place in the new world order' once their plan was finished. But if the caper so far was any indication, the new world order was going to be horribly boring.

Drakken glowered. There was just something _missing_ from all this. Where was the banter, the insults? Where was the _fun_? And he glanced aside to look at Shego, who stood rigid and silent, waiting for orders. He sighed, shook his head, and lowered the visor on his welding mask before returning to work.

**_Part IV: The Fate That Launched A Thousand Chips_**

It was the most mundane and therefore the weirdest 'quest' Kim had ever been on. The black helicopter had flown Kim swiftly through the afternoon sky to the nearest city and landed in the middle of the street in front of a Bueno Nacho restaurant, much to the amazement of passing pedestrians who gawked from the sidewalks.

Kim, feeling very conspicuous, entered Bueno Nacho to make her order. The attendants in the restaurant stared out more at the helicopter than they had at her, and numbly handed Kim her order after she had haltingly pointed to various items on the backlit menu behind the counter. She gave them what she hoped was enough money, and returned to the copter, which sped her back up into the air.

She clutched the warm bag and the cold soda caddy through the flight, a thousand doubts swirling in her mind. She usually ordered salad, so she wasn't sure what kind of Naco the Mystical Monkey would want. In the end, she had simply picked a triple order of what Ron normally ate, and hoped it would be sufficient.

She had changed back into her mission clothes for the 'quest', and didn't know if she should change back before returning to the dojo. As long as it took her to get into the kimono, she figured she shouldn't waste any time changing lest the Nacos get stale.

At Sensei's encouraging nod, Kim went back into the dojo alone. The still atmosphere hadn't changed with it's tinkling chimes. The frosted window panels which had glowed white in the morning were now deepening to yellow. She looked around, but there was no sign of the Mystical Monkey.

'Hello?' she called out. Nothing happened. She walked in further, looking behind the bhudda statue, seeing nothing shadows. 'Hello?' she called out again, a little louder.

'What you looking for, red?' came a squeaky voice, and the Mystical Monkey was peering around her from behind, looking where she was looking.

Kim yelped and jumped, and the Mystical Monkey did so as well. 'Why you always _yell_ like that, red?' he said, backing away from her slowly. 'What's _wrong_ wit' you?'

Kim sighed, letting her heartbeat slow down a moment before answering. 'Great Mystical Monkey,' she said, still unsure of how formal she was supposed to act in front of him. 'I have returned from my quest and...'

'Yeah, yeah, yeah, long time no see.' said the Mystical Monkey, waving his hand impatiently. 'You got the stuff?'

Kim held out the bag as she approached him. The Mystical Monkey sniffed and his face brightened. 'Smell good!' he said, as Kim opened the bag and handed him a Naco. The Mystical Monkey opened the wrapper and breathed deeply. 'Mmmm!' he hummed, then he unwrapped it completely. 'Hey, it fits right in your palm!' he squeaked excitedly. Then he nibbled a crisp corner. He smacked his lips for a moment, then took a full sized bite. Then he was stuffing the Naco into his face eagerly, spilling crumbs and some tomato chunks onto the floor. Once finished, he licked his empty palm. 'You got more?' he said, and Kim handed him the bag. The Mystical Monkey plunged his hand into the bag and took out another wrapped Naco. 'Ooooh, gimmegimmegimmegimme!' he cackled.

Kim watched as he devoured another Naco, the sound of crunching and smacking mixed in weirdly with the tinkling bells of the dojo. At last, the Mystical Monkey slowed down, and was waving a hand at his throat. Kim guessed why and took the soda out of the cardboard carrying case, handing it to him. 'I wasn't sure what kind you like....' she said, but the Mystical Monkey was chugging eagerly through the straw. He paused a moment.

'Ooooh, and it bubbles on the tongue - that is so _cool_!' he slurped loudly, then paused again, looking up at Kim. 'Oh yeah, I forgot, I supposed to be dignified - hold on a second!' He lurched to the statue and sat back down in the lotus position, with the Naco bag on one side of his knees and the soda cup on the other.

He cleared his throat and closed his eyes. 'Ok.' he said, putting his hands up with his fingers curled in a meditating position. 'Your offering has _pleased_ the Mystical Monkey....' he said, his voice now sounding mysterious and sage. 'You may approach with your questions.'

Kim stepped forward and, not knowing if she should kneel or not, she got down on one knee, bowing her head for good measure. 'Great Mystical Monkey....' she said.

'Present!' said the Mystical Monkey, reaching for the soda glass and taking another loud slurp.

'I seek to rescue Ron Stoppable - your Chosen One - from the spirit realm. Will you help me?'

The Mystical Monkey pursed his lips, staring at her and tapping his chin. 'I think I can help.' he said, nodding.

Kim felt elated. If this weird monkey could actually bring him back it would all be worth it. 'Thank you!' she said. 'You're the greatest!'

'Hey, don't thank me yet, red!' said the Mystical Monkey. 'I said I _think_ I can help! There a difference.'

'Well... is there anything you need from me?' said Kim.

The Mystical Monkey kept staring at her as if sizing her up. 'Actually, yeah.' he said. 'But this not gonna be easy. Gonna take time to set up....' He picked up the last Naco and stuffed it greedily into his mouth, munching hard for a few seconds, then he washed it down with a pull at the soda straw. 'OK - come back tomorrow morning red. We start early.'

Kim was taken aback by the abrupt dismissal. She got up and moved toward the dojo exit, then paused and looked back. 'Should I do anything to prepare?' she said uncertainly. 'Like... meditate or something?'

The Mystical Monkey had gotten down from the statue, picking up the soda cup and shambling around the statue's side again. He seemed distracted, and surprised by Kim's question. 'Meditate?' he said, narrowing his bushy eyebrows. 'Yeah sure, why not?' Then he shrugged and disappeared behind the statue again, and Kim knew he had vanished.

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Later, Kim lay on the thin padded mattress on the floor of her room, listening to the night sounds which seemed to circle around the Yamanouchi School. The sound of the air stirring, the sound of leaves wafting in distant trees, and the occasional soft tread of a passing footstep. She had spent the rest of the day going over more scrolls in the library, and joining some of the students in training, just to keep her mind focused. She even managed to snatch her evening meal neatly from the grasp of the lunch lady ninja.

But her meeting with the Mystical Monkey remained in the back of her mind. She mulled over the experience, fighting her disappointment. Truth be told, she felt let down. This Mystical Monkey so far hadn't displayed much in the way of _mystical_ powers. His unexpected appearances and disappearances didn't seem far beyond the skill of the other ninja students. True, she'd never seen a _talking_ monkey before...

But she had thought, once the Mystical Monkey agreed to help, that he would wave his staff in the air with sparkling lights or something. And that Ron would reappear in the dojo, bemused and befuddled, but safe.

And he was supposed to be a _mystical_ entity. Why would a mystic need time to prepare? And what was he preparing? As sleep crept closer, she resolved that whatever the Mystical Monkey had in store, she would be ready. _'I'm Kim Possible - and I can do anything!'_ she thought, _'Bring it on, monkey boy!'_

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_In the spirit world, Ron had seen both meetings and was wringing his hands. 'Monkeys!' he wailed. 'Why did it have to be monkeys?'_

_ 'Don't be such a baby.' said Rhonda, who was feeling a bit smug after being able to see Grimm pretty much the entire day. Granted, it made for a boring sight, watching him take flights to Japan and back, but it was still nice to just look at something that wasn't Ron or shadows. 'It's stupid to be scared of an animal like that.  
_

_ Ron had a sour look on his face, then pointed desperately behind Rhonda. 'Look out, a bear!' he shrieked._

_ Rhonda let out an ear-rending scream, throwing her hands over her head and cowering. Then she heard Ron's laughter and quickly got up with an equally sour glare. 'That wasn't funny!' she said. 'Besides, bears are scarier than monkeys - you never hear about people getting eaten by monkeys while they're out camping!  
_

_ 'Come on, bears are more friendly looking! The National Forest mascot isn't 'Smokey the Monkey!'_

_ 'Oh yeah? Look at a bear's teeth - look at their claws! You think they just go around eating nothing but honey and berries?  
_

_ 'Monkeys are scarier!' said Ron._

_ 'Are not!' said Rhonda.  
_

_ 'Are too!'__  
'Are not!'__  
'Are too!'  
'Are not!'__  
'Are too!'  
_

_ Unheeded by either, the darkness had deepened. The images of Kim and Grimm faded and disappeared. It wasn't until the shadows surrounded them like a smothering blanket that they seemed to notice. They both looked around in sudden silence, fear edging into their faces._

_ 'Ok, ok...' said Rhonda, dropping back into a meditative sitting position. 'I get it - bad vibes....  
_

_ 'Yeah.' said Ron, following her lead. He looked up around into the surrounding shadows with a nervous wave. 'Sorry about that, darkness dudes...'_

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Kim had entered Toshimiru's dojo early that morning and found the Mystical Monkey waiting for her. Without speaking, he gestured to her and began walking in a clumsy, lurching saunter. He wobbled as he descended the steps, using his staff to steady himself while Kim followed.

The main courtyard was already full of students, busy with their morning training. Kim expected a lot of staring, but was surprised when no one, not even Sensei, turned to look at her. None of them looked at the Mystical Monkey either, even though he loudly clattered and tottered his way past, practically within arms' reach of the rope climbing station.

She tried waving at Hirotaka, who was walking by on the battlements doing patrols, but he didn't react in any way. She wondered if no one could see them - or if they were under orders from Master Sensei to ignore them.

They made their way into the sheltered rear courtyard, which seemed dimmer than the outer courtyards. This was partly because they were nearer to the uncarved section of the mountain which rose behind the school, and was lined with thick, leafy trees. And partly because the buildings in front of the rear courtyard blocked some of the sunlight which flooded the training areas.

This section seemed more devoted to meditation training than fighting. There was a rock garden, as well as a trickling waterfall. And near the back wall, there was a large stone fountain with a surrounding pool. There was no one else present.

The Mystical Monkey stopped by the edge of the fountain and turned to face her. 'OK red,' he said, cracking his knuckles and looking up at her intently. 'You want Chosen One back?'

'Yes.' said Kim firmly.

The Mystical Monkey paused and eyed her, as if he wasn't quite convinced. 'You do whatever it takes to _get_ him back - no matter how tough?' he said, staring straight into her eyes.

'Yes.' said Kim.

'Are you ready to take the journey?' he said, pointing at her with one furry finger.

'Yes.' said Kim, starting to wonder how many times she would have to say it before he believed her.

'Are you ready to go the distance?' he said, clenching both his fists and shaking them.

'Yes!' said Kim, getting impatient.

'_Are you ready to get your feet wet_?' he shouted, dancing in place and waving his staff in the air above his head.

'Yes!' said Kim, trying to sound just as enthused as he did.

The Mystical Monkey hopped up onto the rim of the fountain, pointing his hand dramatically towards the horizon. 'Then _follow me_!!' he said loudly. Kim stared in amazement as he threw down his staff and jumped into the fountain, plunging into the water and moving through the pool towards a raised sculpture in the middle.

Eventually he paused and looked back at Kim. 'What you waiting for red?' he said. 'Feet wet! What I just _say_?'

Wondering how on Earth this was going to help, Kim gingerly stepped over the fountain rim and eased herself into the water, which rose up past her knees. The Mystical Monkey was in nearly to his shoulders, the parts of his robes which were submerged billowed under the water.

When she reached him, he sank nearly to his chin. 'Sit.' he said simply.

Kim winced, the cold mountain water biting her skin as she lowered herself to a sitting position. She caught her breath as the water rose past her stomach and to her chest. The Mystical Monkey was in up to his neck, his eyes were closed and he seemed to be meditating. Kim settled herself beside him, waiting.

At last he spoke again, and his voice had taken on a soothing, dream-like quality. 'In order to save Chosen One, you must learn to flow like water.' he said. 'Very important. Meditate with me, Kim Possible, and try to become _one_ with the water....'

But all Kim felt was chilly. 'How?' she said, trying to stop her teeth from chattering.

'Relax...' came the squeaky, but soothing voice. 'Close your eyes. Focus on nothing but the water...'

Kim sighed and closed her eyes.

'Concentrate on the sound of the water....' the Mystical Monkey chanted. 'It's calm... it's peace. Feel how it flows... flowingly.... with it's wonderful, peaceful flowey-ness...'

Kim didn't 'feel' like water, she felt like a fool. She was glad Bonnie wasn't there, and also glad that none of the other Yamanouchi students were watching. She didn't really know them well but the thought of Hirotaka or Yori looking at her while she sat chest high in a chilly fountain, trying to become 'one' with the water....

'Do you feel the flowey-ness....?' Came the voice of the Mystical Monkey.

Kim grimaced. The cold was really starting to sink in, and she felt her arms and legs beginning to shiver. _'This is for Ron.'_ she thought fiercely. _'Don't think about how stupid it is, just do it for Ron....'_ She tried to think past her physical discomfort. She focused on the sound of the fountain as water drops splashed softly around the sculpture. It _was_ peaceful - it was the only sound in the dim and sheltered courtyard. She felt the water lapping around her arms and torso and soon imagined that she could feel outside herself a little bit...

Just as she was thinking that she might be getting somewhere, she felt a wet, hairy arm wind around her neck, while another hand clamped around her shoulder. Before she knew what was happening, she felt her head plunging beneath the surface of the water, and took a swift gasp of air.

All sound was muffled, including the sound of her own grunts as she struggled to break free. The Mystical Monkey's arms felt like iron bands and she couldn't even budge his fingers as he kept her held firmly against the bottom of the fountain. She could feel her clutching fingers breaking the surface of the pool, with air just beyond her reach.

She started kicking with her legs, but felt the five-fingered foot of the Mystical Monkey gripped tight around one ankle, and she couldn't get enough leverage to push him loose. Her lungs started burning as her breath became more stale, the need for oxygen sending waves of panic through her.

She strained and twisted with all her might, fighting to break free, but it was no use. She felt herself starting to black out, and she thought bitterly that this was not the end she had envisioned for her crime-fighting career. Getting bushwhacked by a talking monkey while trying to meditate... she would almost have rather been finished off by Frugal Lucre. She thought about her parents, her brothers, about Monique and Rufus who were still waiting in Riddleton... And one last thought crossed her mind as darkness seemed to surround her. _'Ron....!'_

Then she was above the surface of water again. Air rushed into her eager lungs. She sputtered and gasped for several seconds, her vision coming rapidly back into focus. The Mystical Monkey was patting her on the back, holding her up, and helping her catch her breath again.

'What... was... _that_ for?' Kim wheezed as soon as she could, knocking his hand away angrily. 'I said I wanted Ron back, I didn't ask to be nearly drowned! What kind of crazy spirit guide _are_ you?'

The Mystical Monkey stared at her, and his face looked grave and disappointed. 'This one of the oldest lessons in the book and you didn't get it.' he said, shaking his head. 'You are not ready to save Chosen One.'

Kim's mouth fell open in protest. 'What?' she said. 'What are you talking abou...'

The Mystical Monkey held up his hand, silencing her. 'When you want Chosen One back as badly as you wanted to _breathe_... then you will be ready.'

Kim stared back at him in stunned silence.

'Think it over, red.' The Mystical Monkey hopped out of the fountain, picked up his staff and started shambling back towards the dojo, leaving a wet trail as water dripped and spilled from his robes and fur. 'Come back tomorrow - we start early.' he disappeared past the entrance of the courtyard, but a second later his head popped out again. 'And bring more Nacos!' he called to her. 'That very important - spirit stuff will... uh, not work without more Nacos!' Then he was gone.

_Coming Soon:  
Chapter 26  
_

_What can be a thousand miles - or a single step?_


	27. Ch 26: Journey

A Friend In Darkness|  
All Things Probable 3  
A Kim Possible Fanfiction  
by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and its affiliates, etc. etc.

Chapter 26  
_Journey  
Or: Monkey Shines_

_**Part I: The Magical Mystery Tour**_

After her experience at the fountain, Kim had spent the rest of the day mulling it over in her head, trying to work out what the Mystical Monkey could have meant by it all. _'Not ready to save Ron?' _she thought bitterly. _ 'What exactly does he want from me? I've saved Ron on missions more times than I can count. I've always had his back, even when he messed up and got us captured... if there are dues, then I've paid them a thousand times over!'_

She found herself getting more resentful over it as she practiced in the training areas with the other students, imagining the Mystical Monkey's head in front of her as she punched targets. _'He doesn't know anything about me.'_ she thought angrily. _'I've known Ron since we were in Pre-K. So where does Mr. Monkey get off acting like he knows something I don't about Ron?'_

She wanted to discuss it with Master Sensei and learn what he thought. But as she approached him while he oversaw the training of several students, he held up his hand. 'I believe I know what you wish to ask me, Possible-chan.' he said, not looking away from the students. 'You are troubled - I have seen it in your eyes all day. But if you think that I can explain the wisdom of the Mystical Monkey, I fear I must disappoint you.'

'Why?' Kim said. 'You've studied here your whole life - at least I think you have. You said you communed with him. Who would understand him better?'

Sensei sighed. 'There is a great difference between knowledge and wisdom.' he said. 'Sometimes the most knowledgeable man in the world will also be the most foolish - while those who are considered ignorant are the most wise. What you learn from the Mystical Monkey is a matter that should remain between the two of you, Possible-chan. I cannot advise you.'

Disappointed, Kim resumed her own exercises before going back to her room to study the homework textbooks she had brought from home to stay caught up with her schoolwork.

The following morning, she put on her mission clothes and went to Toshimiru's dojo, her mind firm and set. The pilot ninja had retrieved another order of Nacos, and she brought them with her, even though she was resentful enough that she felt like dumping them off the rope bridge.

The Mystical Monkey was sitting in the Buddha's lap again, his fingers curled and his eyes closed in meditation. As Kim entered, his nose twitched and his eyes popped open. He smacked his lips as he looked at the bag. 'Food for thought!' he squeaked. 'That sound like a fair trade!' And he shambled over to her, snatching the bag and fishing out a naco, which he began eating noisily.

As he crunched and slurped, Kim cleared her throat. 'I've been thinking,' she said slowly, nervous, but determined to speak her mind. 'And... you're wrong.'

The Mystical Monkey had finished off the first Naco and glanced up at Kim, his mouth still full, but he raised his long, white eyebrow and rumbled in his throat in a tone that clearly said, _'Oh?'_

'You said I wasn't ready to save Ron.' she said, wanting to finish her thoughts before he could empty his mouth. 'I've been saving Ron for a long time. I've _known_ him for a long time - way before he had Mystical Monkey Power. Before _you_ could have even cared who he was. He's my boyfriend, and I'm ready to save him now - no matter what you might think.'

'Oh hohoho!' the Mystical Monkey cackled. 'I like you, red - you _cheeky_! Everyone else always try to suck up to me because of all that meditation they do in the library. It's all, 'ooooh wise Mystical Monkey, teach me the meaning of life', even when I tell them the answer is the letter "Q". So you think I wrong, huh? Well, I gonna give you the chance to _prove_ me wrong! What you learn yesterday?'

'I learned to never shut my eyes when you're around.' Kim growled.

The Mystical Monkey laughed in a series of short screeches, sounding just like a screaming monkey. 'Smart girl!' he said, then took a swipe at her with his staff, which she easily dodged. 'What else?'

'You said I needed to want Ron back as badly as I wanted to breathe.' she said. 'That's _ridiculous_. How am I supposed to spend every waking moment acting like I'm about to pass out from lack of oxygen?'

The Mystical Monkey rolled his eyes. 'Jeez, red. You so literal!'

'Ron's trapped in some other dimension!' Kim said. 'I don't have time to play games! Just _tell_ me what I need to do to save him and I'll do it! If you don't believe me, try me when my back isn't turned!'

The Mystical Monkey looked at her carefully. 'You never had a _master_ before, have you?'

Kim blinked. 'A master?'

'Didn't think so.' he said. 'You can do.... I think sixteen kinds of Kung-Fu. That pretty good for someone your age. You study it all by yourself?'

Kim remembered in middle school and High school, all the time she'd practiced cheerleader moves, practiced to the point where it was as easy as playing hopscotch with Ron. And one day she'd picked up a book on Kung-Fu, and wondered if all the leaps, kicks and other moves were anything like cheerleading. And she had discovered that it came naturally. She seemed to pick up on every move in each book simply by studying the illustrations and pretending is was a cheer move for practice. Once she had the basics down, she moved on to the more advanced stuff, and even mixed it in with her cheer routines, combining her tumbles and flips with Kung-Fu for a style all her own.

It had been so easy, and had come so naturally that she hadn't done much by way of class study in a dojo. She'd taken a few classes, but she picked up on the basics so quickly that she got bored and went back to practicing on her own. She nodded to the Mystical Monkey.

'Mmmm. That explains why you so impatient.' he said. The hot head apprentice always think they know better than the master. Especially when they got talent!'

'I don't think I _know _better.' said Kim, protesting. 'I just don't see why you can't lay it out for me. I can do anything.'

'I trying to help you.' said the Mystical Monkey. 'You just gotta trust me, red. Even if you try to force me - I wouldn't be able to bring back Chosen One like that. If you want a doctor to cure something, and he say he can't right away, can you punch doctor out and cure disease? You may not like it, but you gotta accept that some things gotta be done a certain way.'

'But _why_?' Kim said. 'If you want to teach me, then explain. You're the Mystical Monkey - can't you see all? And _know_ all? Can't you just bring Ron back now? Or even tell me where Monkey Fist is? It would be so _easy_...'

The mystical Monkey laughed raucously. 'You funny!' he said. 'You been saving world for what, four years? You should know by now that not how things work! Only bad guys GIVE stuff to their followers! The good guys gotta work for it! That why bad guys always lose! They donno how to stick it out when things get tough! Sure, they keep coming back - but only so they can try another 'take over world quick' scheme.'

Kim looked down helplessly, her simple solution now seeming naive. 'Just once - why can't it be easy?'

The Mystical Monkey sighed, shaking his head. 'Listen.' he said. 'I like you red - so I be serious with you. If it was easy, it wouldn't be worth it. Bad guys always looking to do things fast and easy. The good guys always working hard to stop them. It help them grow. It make them stronger. Bad guys just don't get it. That why good guys always win on the long road. Cause they _want _it more - they suffer more. If I make things easy, you might not win. I not gonna do that to you, red. I want you to _win_.'

Kim smiled bitterly. 'I was kind of wondering if you _were_ on my side.' she said. 'What with the drowning and all.'

'Don't feel bad, red.' said the Mystical Monkey. 'You not the first one who think they know better. They _all_ do. It the funniest thing in the world - everyone always suck up to the master, asking for advice. Then when they hear advice, they get mad because it not what they _expected_. And they say to the master, the teacher, the whoever, 'well I show _you_!' And they try to do it their own way. Sometimes they make it - sometimes they don't. But all of them realize later they'd have got what they wanted faster if they just listen to the master in the first place. Just like Sensei.'

'_Sensei_ did it too?' Kim said, amazed.

'Ho, yeah!' said the Mystical Monkey, cackling. 'He not always old you know - he young and hot-headed once too! Ask him to tell you what happen when he try to prove _he_ better than me!'

Kim shook her head. 'He said what he talked with you about was between the two of you.' she said.

The Mystical Monkey chattered even louder. 'Yeah, he would!' he laughed. 'Ah... it nice to know he mellow out later on though. He a lot like Toshimiru.' He sighed and stretched his back. 'Well come on, red.' he said, holding out his hand. 'Chosen one not gonna save _himself_ you know.'

Kim eyed his hand warily.

'Oh, don't act so nervous, I not gonna bite! Besides, humans taste funny.' he said.

She put her hand in his, and looked around in surprise. The dojo seemed to be fading away, as if a gray, billowing smoke was rising from all around, though she couldn't feel or smell any smoke. 'What's happening?'

The Mystical Monkey chuckled. 'Admit it red - you didn't think I _had_ any powers! Bet you thought the Great Bear was _cooler_ than I was! We going on a spiritual journey so we can see just how ready you are to save Chosen One!'

And darkness fell as the gray mist blotted out her vision completely.

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Dr. Drakken threw a large switch on a control panel inside the mountain lair. There was a series of loud _thunking_ noises as lights activated, rising from the base and to the high crown of a massive machine which stood like an alien construct in the rough interior of the stone cavern.

The towering machine rose up to the very roof of the cavern, and was tipped with a spiked electrode like a thorny robotic finger. Drakken paused to admire the machine, and heard a voice from beside him.

'Impressive. You have done well, Dr. Drakken.' said Monkey Fist pompously. 'Or I should say, it _seems_ you have done well. It remains to be seen if the Jammer will actually work.'

Drakken felt nettled. 'Nnnnn! Of course it will work!' he sniffed. 'It's fully functional and I can prove it right now - just a few minutes of operation and every satellite orbiting the Earth will be nothing more than space junk!' He reached for the controls.

But Monkey Fist seized his wrist in a vice-like grip with his stony fingers. 'Not _yet_!' he said, and he sounded angry. 'We never wanted to take down Earth's satellites.'

Drakken spluttered. 'Then what was the point of _building_ this thing...?'

'Can we run lower powered signals through _half_ the satellites around the earth? The ones which are above the half of the earth under nightfall?'

Drakken ran calculations in his mind. Satellites passed in and out above the dark side of the Earth in it's rotation and in each satellite's orbit constantly. But it wouldn't take much to set the Jammer so that it would affect any satellite passing under the night side of Earth, and then release it as it passed into day. 'Yes.' he answered at last.

'And can we transmit signals without detection by Probable's device?'

Drakken sighed. '_Yes_! As long as you don't interfere with any satellite's normal operations, it shouldn't trigger their detector....'

'That will do.' said Monkey Fist. But let us test it first. _Sskipoyiwa_ - are you rested? Are you prepared?'

Maze nodded, looking towards the Jammer. There was a lift at it's side, and halfway up, surrounded by gantries and catwalks, there was a glowing, hollowed interior with a larger Immersion Pod apparatus, cannibalized and connected to the Jammer.

'Then it's time to begin phase one.' said Monkey Fist.

Maze took the lift and was carried upwards past brightly lit sections of the Jammer, filled with wires, components and other things he found alien. He strode into the hollowed out section, more nervous that he'd felt the first time he used the mini-Jammer. The platform within the machine was mirror like and gleaming, with piercing white bands that led towards a veritable cage of wires and harnesses. He placed the Immersion cap on his head, stood in the wide circle of the Immersion boots, and slid his arms into a set of tubes. A whirl of sound surrounded him, a dull throbbing noise that continued to grow.

Monkey Fist nodded to Drakken, and Drakken activated the hatch control which slid away a section of the cavern roof. With another flick of a switch, the thorny apex of the Jammer slid up until it was poking through the roof and into the sky. 'Remember - we must _not_ be detected yet.' Monkey Fist said. 'Whatever measures you must take to mask us from detection, use them.'

'I know what I'm doing.' Drakken muttered resentfully. 'All systems are go - shall I continue, or would you like to lecture me some more?'

Monkey Fist smirked. 'By all means - proceed.'

And from within his place inside the Jammer, Maze felt his vision expanding. It was more powerful than the mini-Jammer. More powerful than anything he had imagined. He chanted softly, and his awareness of the shadows encompassed not a small area - not even a large area - but _half of the globe_. Every ripple of darkness, every shadow and shade was open to his awareness, and his influence over it was enhanced as well.

He concentrated his will. Those who slept at night around the world were mostly unaware. Those who were still awake noted only that the night seemed deeper somehow, the darkness thicker, that the stars shone less brightly.

But the crows heard the call. Every crow blinked awake, and knew there was a command they could not ignore. With a storm of wings, crows across half the world took to the skies. And at Maze's command, they gathered in huge, roiling murders and flew to the locations which their new master fed into their minds.

And in thousands of gathering places beneath the night sky, golems stood guard beside large crates. In each location Maze and Monkey Fist had visited, they had taken or created a new golem. It hadn't been too difficult - especially in the more populated regions - to find a victim to petrify and enslave with the golem enchantment. By placing their guards in out of the way areas, usually outdoors in forested places outside of cities, they had blanketed the earth with enough gathering points to accomplish their goals.

At Maze's command, the golems opened their crates and began patiently fitting tiny spikes onto the beaks of every crow that gathered at their several locations, and they tirelessly continued their labors through the night.

Before long, tens of thousands of birds were taking to the night sky, with their orders and missions irresistibly impressed into their minds. And as the golems labored, thousands more crows gradually joined their numbers every hour the night went on, scattering hither and thither to do their work....

_**Part II: The Greater Sacrifice**_

Kim had felt a moment of uncertainty when the mists rose around her. She felt briefly as if she were falling through the air. She could see and hear nothing, and the only thing that felt solid was the hairy hand of the Mystical Monkey. She kept a firm grip on him, and as suddenly as the mists had risen, they parted and vanished.

But the dojo was gone. Light and color meshed and reformed around her into a gaudy pantheon of red, green and yellow. The smell of ancient wood and burning incense was replaced with a cooking smell that was all too familiar. She was inside Bueno Nacho, standing in front of Ned, who was holding a job application.

'I remember....' Kim said, looking around. 'This was when Ron and I got jobs at Bueno Nacho.' She put her hand out, trying to touch the shoulder of her younger self. Her hand passed through like vapor. 'What _is_ this?' she said.

'Duh.' said the Mystical Monkey. 'This _your _memory, red. We seeing what happen in the past.'

And Kim gasped with sudden happiness, for standing right next to her was Ron. Younger looking, staring around with a bored expression, but the same Ron she'd been aching to see for so long since his disappearance. But as she reached out to take his hand, she passed through him as well.

'Memory red...' said the Mystical Monkey. 'What I just _say?_ They can't see or hear or feel us.'

'But why am I seeing this?' she said.

'Donno.' said the Mystical Monkey. 'We find out together, I think.'

And Kim heard Ned talking. 'When can you start?' he said.

'Born ready, sir!' Kim heard herself answering eagerly, and she knew what she was thinking, because she remembered it plainly. Her mind was occupied with the timetable of how many days and hours she would have to work so she could buy a fashionable green jacket and then quit.

'And you?' said Ned, turning to Ron.

'Me what?' Ron said, and looked surprised.

'Isn't this your application, Mr... ah, Stoppable?' said Ned, holding up another sheet of paper.

'What?! I didn't...' and he turned helplessly to Kim. 'You _didn't_!' he wailed.

'It'll be more fun if we both work here!' Kim saw herself answer, and fearing that wouldn't be enough, she pulled out the big guns.

'Oh, no! No! No, not the puppy-dog pout!'

And so they had taken on the jobs. And Kim saw time pass swiftly, seeing the glaring humiliation in her eyes as she served Bonnie, who ordered Kim with sneering delight. But she'd wanted the jacket so badly, she even put up with Bonnie, knowing that it would all be worth it once Bonnie saw her wearing the jacket.

But none of that prepared her for what happened next. Learning that she just wasn't very good in the kitchen. She'd expected food preparation to come to her as easily as cheerleading, or Kung-Fu. And Kim watched herself as Ned shook his head at her efforts, demoting her to 'cheese duty'.

And she watched as Ned, dazzled by Ron's culinary style, promoted him to burrito folding. And Ron, in typical Ron-ness, had let it go to his head.

'Hello?' Kim saw herself saying to Ron. 'Kim to Ron! You didn't even _want_ this job!'

'I didn't know _what _I wanted, Kim!' Ron said with an impassioned gleam in his eyes. 'I was lost, adrift in the wilderness. But that was then. Now I belong. I belong to Bueno Nacho! _Yo amo este lugar_!'

And Kim watched as she saw herself learning that Ron had been promoted to Assistant Manager, and the subsequent argument they'd had when she was getting ready to rush after Dr. Drakken and his plan to take over Wisconsin.

'Ron, an evil wacko is in the Dairy State with a giant laser drill! I'm going. And I was hoping you'd come with.'

There was a hurt look in Ron's face as he answered. 'To be your sidekick? That's what this is all about, isn't it? You just can't stand that I'm better than you at something!'

'You wouldn't even _have_ this stupid job if I didn't fill out your application!' she shot back.

'Kim, we could argue all day, but it's not gonna get this floor mopped.' He said uncomfortably, probably not wanting to admit Kim had a point.

'Mop it yourself, _boss!_ And find a new nacho-drone! I _quit!'_

Ron stared after her. 'Yeah?' he said, 'Well, find a new sidekick!' And as Kim watched herself storming out of Bueno Nacho, Ron turned to Ned angrily. 'What are you looking at? I want that floor to sparkle!'

'Ah, the young.' said the Mystical Monkey, shaking his head and taking another Naco out of his bag. 'They say that youth is wasted on them. So impatient...'

Kim felt a little annoyed. 'Both of us harshed out back then.' she said. 'It was a major minus for me to sign him on without telling him, but then he went all Little League on me at the same time...'

The Mystical Monkey shrugged. 'Maybe there something here you not seeing, red.' he said quietly. 'I not sure who made the bigger sacrifice...'

The vision rippled and dissolved, and Kim saw a flashing blur of scenes pass before her. She saw herself and Ron, best friends in middle school, both awkward, but neither above or below the other in their minds.

But as time passed, she became more confident, more stylish and beautiful. She became more popular, more accepted by the other students. While Ron followed after her, seeming just as awkward as before.

She studied Kung Fu. She became a cheerleader. She became more popular than ever, and everyone seemed to expect great things from her.

While Ron continued following in her wake. And no one seemed to expect much from him. Indeed many, Mr. Barkin's voice somehow louder than the others, said that he had no remarkable skills at all.

And while they didn't say it to him directly, somehow he seemed to pick up on it. Low expectations. A plotted course of mediocrity. All the while Kim seemed to be rising higher and higher, while he got smaller - not by shrinking, but by staying the same. And he seemed to stop trying to excel, simply because no one expected him to.

Then totally by accident, simply because Kim had wanted Ron along for the ride, he'd found something he _was_ good at. A boss who encouraged him to the point where he actually overtook him, and he found himself in a position of authority and trust. He was doing something he enjoyed, and doing it well. And for the first time in his life, a sense of genuine accomplishment. And a gleam of hope that maybe, just maybe, he could do more than be just a shadow behind Kim's rising star...

Then a call from Wade, a plea for him to help Kim as she battled Drakken in his lair at the cheese wheel. And Ned smiling as Ron was forced to stand at a crossroads between two paths. 'Well, well, _well_. Looks like you've got a choice to make, Stoppable! What's more important? Your sacred duty as assistant manager - or your role as goofy sidekick?'

And Kim saw the pained realization dawning in his face. 'Well, that's no choice at all.' he said, and Kim could feel his disappointment like a solid aura around him. 'I guess it's time to say... _buenos noches_, Bueno Nacho!'

And Kim knew what had happened next. Ron had come to her aid. And even though he'd been captured again, they still managed to save the day. And when they returned home, they sat at Bueno Nacho, and he handed her a box containing a stylish green jacket which represented the last of his money from the job he'd given up....

The vision faded into a billowing of gray mist, and Kim stood beside the Mystical Monkey in the midst of a silent void. 'I... I never realized that job _meant_ so much to him.' she said. She thought about later in Senior year, when she'd gotten another job herself - a job that she blew off more often than not. She'd simply done it as a hint to Ron that _he_ should get a job, so he could afford to take her on more 'grown up' dates and ditch his coupon book. She remembered his numerous tries and failures throughout the many shops at the mall. When all the time, he'd walked away from a job he was really good at - again, for _her_ sake.

'Mmm.' said the Mystical Monkey, nodding. 'One man's trash, another man's treasure.' he said. 'That very nice of him. Very giving.'

Kim felt guilty. Her own objections to him staying at Bueno Nacho now seemed not only pathetic, but selfish. They'd forgiven each other while tied up in Drakken's lair, but somehow after seeing it again, it felt rushed and perfunctory. _'You're entitled to excel.' _she remembered saying. But even so, he had stayed at her side. He had never returned to Bueno Nacho to get his job back, and she had never motivated him to try.

But before she could dwell on it any longer, the mists around them seemed to be parting again. 'Oooh, here come another one.' said the Mystical Monkey. There was a musty, plastic smell that combined books with floor cleaner. The bright sunlight of day was now dark.

Kim glanced around. It looked like the Middleton High school hallway. The lights were low, and she heard music coming from the direction of the gym. The Mystical Monkey stood beside her. 'Why are we here?' she said.

'Beats me, red.' shrugged the Mystical Monkey. 'This your spiritual journey - I just here for the Nacos.'

Kim peered in through the doorway to the gym. Soft lights from a disco ball in the ceiling swirled around on the floor and she saw the shadowed figures of people dancing to a slow, romantic song.

'This is the Spirit Week dance.' she said. 'I was here with...' and she gasped as she saw a younger version of herself, dancing with Josh Mankey. She looked strange in her own eyes - not quite as mature. And it looked even stranger, seeing herself from the outside, especially when she was with someone besides Ron.

'I seeing more about this now.' said the Mystical Monkey, as if he were learning things himself. 'You were freaking over this dance, big time. Almost didn't go. But someone help you get through all that...'

'Ron.' said Kim softly, and was suddenly struck by a deep regret that it wasn't Ron in her arms on the dance floor.

'So where he at?' said the Mystical Monkey, looking around. 'He fought by your side that day - he help a lot. Why he not here?'

Kim shrugged her shoulders. 'He... he never came to the dance.' she said. 'I didn't... I _don't_... know where he was.'

There was a sudden thumping noise behind them, and the Mystical Monkey whirled, going into a kung-fu pose. 'Aaaaa!' he screeched. 'You got rats here? Rats with _hammers_?'

Kim stared at the door of a closet. She remembered hiding in there because she was so worried about Josh and the dance that she couldn't bring herself to face him. She walked slowly to the door.

'Hello?' Ron's voice came through the door, sounding slightly muffled. 'Hellooooooo? Anyone out there? Helloooooooooooo? Aw c'mon, the music's not _that _loud!'

Kim gasped, and she remembered. After Ron had encouraged her, she'd stepped into the hall and asked Josh out. And he'd accepted, instantly changing her nervousness and fear to relief and happiness. Josh had said he was coming to pick her up. Then Ron had blared out from the closet, using that stupid megaphone, saying he needed a ride too. As she passed by with Josh at her side, she kicked the door shut on him. She assumed he had simply left the closet on his own afterwards - after all, who would design a door that locks from the _outside_? And later that evening, she had been so elated about being at the dance with Josh, and showing up Bonnie, she had completely forgotten about Ron.

She reached for the doorknob, trying to open it, but her hand passed through it like vapor. 'Oh.. _Ron_...' she said, putting her hand to her chin, 'You spent the whole dance in here?'

She passed through the door and saw Ron, lying on a makeshift table he had made by stacking boxes of custodial supplies. He was staring at the ceiling, listening to the distant sound of the dance music. He sighed heavily.

'Oh _man_!' said the Mystical Monkey, coming through the door to stand beside Kim. 'You leave him in _here?_ That really harsh, red! What he ever do to _you_?'

'I didn't _leave_ him in here!' said Kim, protesting. 'I just... _forgot_ him... in... here...' she ended, feeling foolish.

Then suddenly she was standing in cheerleader practice, when Ron flounced into the gym talking through that megaphone, declaring how his social calendar was free for any of them. Kim saw herself, her face flaming red with embarrassment as Ron was shot down again and again.

Then they were back in the dark closet and Kim was looking down at Ron as he kicked his feet against the side of his bed of boxes. 'Oooooh.' said the Mystical Monkey. 'You think he a geek, make you look like geek in front of the cool people. Well, I guess that as good a reason as any.' he said, shaking his head. 'Still - he put himself on the line for you - he help you go out with the guy you wanted. This seem like a pretty lousy way to pay him back, red. Did you even try to set him up with someone so he could enjoy the dance too?'

Kim said nothing. She sank down onto a box herself, staring at him, a feeling of deepest shame coursing through her. Ron had been clumsy and tactless about a lot of stuff that day. But in the end, he was the one who had gotten her together with Mankey. She remembered how happy she had felt that night, like everything had gone her way. She hadn't even noticed that Ron wasn't there.

There was a sound of footsteps outside the door, and Ron sat upright, twisting at the knob and calling out. 'Hey! Hey!' he said. 'Door need open here! Hello??'

A shadowed form paused in front of the small frosted pane of glass near the top of the door. 'Stoppable?' Kim felt a chill. It was Matt and Cliff. Two of the less memorable guys on the football team, but jocks nonetheless, who had never had anything good to say about Ron until he started winning games for them in his Senior year. 'What are you doing in _there_?' came Matt's voice, sounding amused, and a malicious edge already creeping into it.

Ron answered with his usual cheerful, unflappable voice. 'Ah, just chillin.' he said. 'But I feel totally chilled out now, so if you'll just put one hand on the doorknob and give it a quarter turn....' he said expectantly.

Matt's voice came laughing back, with Cliff chuckling in the background. 'You don't sound too chill to me, Stoppable.' he said. 'Catch you later.' Then he and Cliff strode back into the gym. Kim had passed through the door and was shouting.

'Not cool, guys! _Not_ cool...!!!'

The Mystical Monkey poked his head through the wall. 'They can't hear you red.' he said, his eyes looking sad. 'They just shadows from the past.'

Shadows or not, Kim wanted to slug them both. She heard Cliff talking to Matt, their voices already fading. 'Wish I knew who locked him in there.' he said. 'Wouldn't have thought of it myself - good one!'

Kim stumped back to the Mystical Monkey. 'I remember them at the dance that night.' she said. 'I thought they looked a little too smug about something.' she re-entered the closet and Ron was sitting back down on the boxes with a sigh.

'Oh man, this _tanks_.' he said.

'Oh... _Ron_...' she said, feeling a tear running down her cheek.

She felt time passing by, like a film passing in fading scenes. The music kept playing, then there was silence. The lights gradually faded to total darkness. Only the silvery gleam of the moon passing through the outside windows filtered into the closet beneath a crack in the door. Ron lay asleep on the boxes, curled up and lying on his side.

Kim remembered how she had felt going to sleep that night after getting home from the dance - contented and warm - she had never slept better. Ron twitched, his face looking like it was half mashed into one of the boxes.

'How long do I have to stay here?' Kim said softly, staring at Ron's sleeping form. She felt so guilty she couldn't stand it any longer. She wanted to leave, to not have to look anymore.

The Mystical Monkey shrugged. 'Donno - how long did _he_ have to stay here?' he said, shaking his head. 'You not held by walls red. You want to leave him again? Door right there.'

At his words, Kim felt as if a lance had pierced her. She said nothing, but stayed there motionless.

Time kept passing. The pale light of dawn slowly rose. There was a sudden bang as the door opened and the custodian came in. 'What the...?' he said, staring down at Ron, who suddenly shot up, a trickle of drool running down the corner of his mouth.

'Wha? Wha?' he said. 'Mr. Barkin? Is the answer E=McHammer?'

The custodian shook his head. 'Kid, what are you doing in here? School doesn't start for three hours!'

Ron's eyes slowly came into focus. 'Oh _man_!' he said. 'I gotta get back home! He tore out of the closet, then paused. 'Uh... are the bathrooms clean yet?' he said sheepishly.

The custodian sighed. 'Make it quick!' he said.

Kim walked silently beside the Mystical Monkey as they followed Ron down the sidewalk through the dim morning light. 'Oh man - mom is gonna _kill_ me...' he said, holding his head in his hands. And indeed as he went into his house he was met with a hail of angry screeches from Mrs. Stoppable, while his dad looked on shaking his head.

Kim watched, biting her lip as they chewed him out for his late return. The explanation of a closet didn't seem to satisfy them very much, because he wouldn't tell them how he wound up in the closet in the first place. The tongue-lashing seemed to go on forever before he was finally allowed to go up to his room and get cleaned up.

'Why didn't he ever _say_ anything?' said Kim miserably. 'He didn't do anything wrong, I'd have backed him up...'

Ron was talking to Rufus. 'OK little guy,' he said. 'Not a _word_ of this to Kim! She had a perfect night, and it's gonna stay that way!' Rufus was nodding and giving the thumbs-up sign.

Grey mists rose up and Kim's vision was blotted out. Then she and the Mystical Monkey were back in the dojo, and chiming bells were tinkling around them. The Mystical Monkey was in front of her, looking slowly up into her eyes. 'You a lucky gal, red.' he said quietly. 'He give up being happy so _you_ could be happy. Not many people will do that, even for someone they love....'

Kim felt her lip trembling. The Monkey's words about _who made the greater sacrifice_ went through her mind. 'Yeah....' she said, and her voice was a quiet whisper. 'He's... one in five billion.'

_**Part III: It's All Geek To Me**_

Wade stood in a 'tech silo' which Mr. Omo-Sa had allowed Jade to build a long time ago in a secluded corner of their yard. It was a place where she built devices which their clients, or which Grimm needed, but were too large to fit into her room or the garage.

He and Jade were working on Dementor's Counter-Jammer. He was welding circuitry into various components. Jade was wrestling a slat of shaped steel into place around the Counter-Jammer's frame, a rivet gun hanging from the belt around her waist.

Besides the clanking and electrical buzzing sounds, they were working in near silence. They also weren't looking at each other. When Jade later passed near him, he spoke up and said, 'Pass the level?'

She paused at a workbench and handed it to him with her eyes looking at the other side of the room. 'Here.' she said, and once he'd taken it, she started back towards the framework she'd been working on.

And Wade was suddenly tired of it. He put his welder down with a clatter and pulled up his mask. 'OK that's enough,' he said. 'I'm sorry I kissed you, OK? Can we just forget it? I'm tired of us acting like your parents.'

Jade turned around with her eyes squinted, shaking her finger at him. '_Don't_.... use 'kissing' and my parents in the same sentence!' she said.

'We should be close to finished with this thing, instead we're barely started.' he said, gesturing to the skeletal framework in the middle of the room. 'We're just not jiving like we did before.'

'Jiving?' Jade said. 'We never _jived_ - all we did was go at each other...' and she stopped, red patches blooming on her cheeks. 'You know what I mean!' she said.

'I know.' said Wade. 'But this quiet politeness - it's just too weird! I think we did better work when we were rivals.'

'I'm not the one who kissed all that away!' Jade said. 'I was fine hating your guts, and then you ruined it...' and she halted again.

'Ruined it?' Wade said. 'You mean you _don't_ hate my guts anymore?'

Jade turned away. 'I donno...' she said. 'I mean... a first kiss? That's not something you're supposed to just forget about.'

Wade felt even more uncomfortable. He didn't know it had been her first. And he had kind of hijacked the experience by springing it on her like a ghost in carnival haunted house ride. 'Well.... it also doesn't mean you _have_ to start dating the guy.' he said. 'Sometimes people are better off being rivals. It keeps both of them on their toes.' And he suddenly thought about the fortune cookie he'd opened his first night at the Omo-Sa house. _A strong adversary may lead you to even greater strength._

As much as he hated to admit it, he _liked_ having Jade as an opponent. Tech and engineering came easily to him - so easily that he coasted sometimes. But after his first electronic duel with Jade, he'd known the infuriating thrill of having someone out there who was just as good as he was. Jade was cute and everything, but the awkweirdness after the kiss had sapped all the challenge out of their temporary partnership.

'Besides,' he said out loud as if thinking, 'It's not as if I really liked you.'

She looked back at him, a cold gleam in her eyes. 'Oh _yeah_?' she said. 'Why not?'

'Well,' he said, thinking carefully, 'How could I _like_ someone who thinks she can make integrated circuits without silicon oxycarbide?'

Jade's eyes narrowed, and the red in her cheeks was darkening to purple. Wade didn't watch much anime, but he wouldn't have been surprised to see a big red 'X' pop up on Jade's forehead.

'Not to mention I could weld a better superstructure than this out of balsa wood - which doesn't even weld.' he went on. And Jade looked she was about to go up to three X's. 'Besides, there's a girl in Montana I kinda like.' he finished.

Jade had a quiet look on her face for a moment as her face seemed to relax. Then she smirked. 'Well I hope she's got bad eyesight,' she said. 'How else could someone fall for a second-rater like you? I mean, what kind of techie tries to defeat a golem with waveform harmonics? Even the Mythbreakers knew better than that!'

And the angry defiance returned to Wade's face as well. 'We'll see who's second rate once I've got my components assembled and you're still reading the instructions for _yours_!' he said. And they both resumed welding, pausing only to glare at each other and make occasional insults as they worked.

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Kim waved her hand in front of her face, trying to part the mists that surrounded her. Another vision seemed to be rising. The Mystical Monkey was still beside her, looking curious. This time when the vision came into focus, Kim saw herself, sitting at the kitchen table in her house with Ron sitting next to her.

She was nodding her head while Ron glared at her and spoke. 'What are you doing?' he said, but Kim started as she heard him speaking with _her own _voice.

'Your hair!' Kim saw herself answer, but it was Ron's voice that came from her mouth. 'It's so _flippy_!'

Kim squinted as she looked back and forth between Ron and herself. 'This was when Drakken's machine switched our minds.' she said.

The Mystical Monkey was standing beside her, the ragged hair on his head barely reaching to the height of her belt. 'Not everyone get the chance to _really_ walk a mile in someone else's shoes.' he said, pulling the tuft of hair at the base of his chin. 'Lots of people make big changes after seeing themselves from the outside for a while.'

And Kim winced as she saw herself in Ron's body being strong armed by the D-hall bullies, but pretty much ignored by everyone else. After the last couple of visions, she cast her mind back, trying to determine if there was anything she'd done 'wrong' here that she was supposed to be looking out for.

But all she saw was herself 'wallowing in low expectations' as she put it to Ron later in the hallways. Ron, in her body, was beset by all the committees and representatives that he, or _she_, was supposed to be helping out with various projects.

As Ron was being dragged away to plan for the upcoming cheerleader contest, Kim saw herself saying, 'I am _so_ history...'

The vision shifted to the cheer contest in the blink of an eye and Kim saw herself in Ron's body, twisting her hands as Ron clumsily tried to fumble his way through a cheer routine on stage with the rest of the squad.

And after just a few seconds, she couldn't stand it any longer. She charged onto the gym floor, pushing her own body out of the way to take control. The crowd was surprised at first, but after a few successful moves, they seemed to forget their shock. And before long they were cheering loudly for the Middleton squad as she used Ron's body to lead them through.

Ron, in Kim's body, had a look of intense relief on his face, trying to back unseen onto the sidelines.

'You seem kinda worried about him making you look bad,' said the Mystical Monkey, tapping his chin. 'Weren't you worried what using his body like that for would do to _his_ reputation?'

Kim shrugged. 'I figured he couldn't complain.' she said. 'I made sure the bullies stayed off his back from then on - and most guys would love to work with the cheer squad on stage like that. He could only go up in cred with the stuff I did for him.'

'So you figure he not _have_ a reputation to ruin? A reputation like yours?'

Kim didn't answer as the mists rose again to blot out the vision.

They were back in the dojo again, and Kim shook her head, pushing her hair away from her forehead. 'What is all this?' she asked.

The Mystical Monkey was slurping from his soda cup. 'What you talking about?' he said, shrugging.

'Was all this just to make me feel guilty about stuff that happened years ago?' she said. 'We were both teenagers - we're _still _teenagers! We both had times when we acted stupid. Why not show me that time when Ron got rich off his Naco royalties? About how he got all full of himself, and hired a posse of phonies and totally blew me off? And then how he lost it all when he kept all that money in his pants for Drakken to steal?'

'Why you dragging _his_ problems into this?' said the Mystical Monkey, looking confused. 'If you don't _need_ him to beat that Drakken guy, then you don't need to point out his problems so _yours_ won't look so bad.'

Kim felt like he'd slapped her in the face. 'I... I'm _not_!' she said.

'Then why you bring it up?'

'Because all I'm seeing here is the 'Kim's-a-jerk' version of 'This Is Your Life!' Kim answered hotly.

'I not showing you all this, red!' he said, looking almost insulted. 'All I doing is starting the ball rolling - _you_ controlling where it goes!'

Kim shook her head in disbelief. 'Why would I _want_ to see all that?' she said.

The Mystical Monkey shrugged. 'A person's spirit a funny thing red. Lotta times spirit will understand things the brain doesn't.' And suddenly the mists whipped up again, whirling around them both. 'Ah - case in point!' he said.

The mists swept and billowed, and this time when they parted, Kim couldn't see Ron. She saw a room plastered with movie posters, and shelves lined with action figures. She was at Cousin Larry's house.

'Oh hey, I remember _this_!' said the Mystical Monkey. 'This where Chosen One get some of my power! He so funny - I don't think he know how much he acts like a monkey even though he scared of us!'

And Kim knew what was happening. Wade had pulled a 'virtual flake' on Ron with his holo-Kim, sending him to ask Monty Fiske some more questions, not knowing that he was about to reveal himself as Monkey Fist. She had spent the time at Larry's house listening to him droning on about the movies he'd seen, school, the movies he'd seen, chess, the movies he'd seen... on and on like a travelogue that just wouldn't end. And she'd zoned out, nodding her head mindlessly, and tonelessly agreeing with what he was saying about the toy line based on one of his favorite films.

'...a rather dramatic error on the part of the manufacturers, given that the Senators wore only purple.' he was saying, a look of smug superiority on his face.

'Really Larry? Isn't that _fascinating_.....'

Kim winced, surprised at how sarcastic and insincere she sounded.

Then the call came on her Kimmunicator - Ron was being chased through Fiske's manor by 'Monkey Fist' - master of Tai Shing Pek Kwar, criminal and megalomaniac.

Kim looked at herself as she stared into her old Kimmunicator. 'I don't know what to do!' she heard herself saying frantically. 'If I were there I could help him out, but...'

Larry held out his hand. 'Give it to me - I have an idea.'

Kim flinched when she heard herself answering him. _'This isn't one of your stupid science fiction games Larry!'_

The Mystical Monkey grimaced. 'Ooooh...' he said. 'He all the way across the room, and you _still_ reach far enough to rip his heart out! And I thought _I _was good!'

She felt another wave of guilt at the Mystical Monkey's words - Larry was just trying to help, and she had jumped all over him. The fear and stress she had been feeling seemed like a small excuse for lashing out and practically stomping on everything Larry enjoyed.

But she watched as her younger self sighed and handed over the Kimmunicator. And then came the improbable ending - some nonsensical advice about a 'Cloud Guardian'. And Ron had used the Monkey statues, been gifted with Mystical Monkey Power, and actually _defeated_ Monkey Fist. Kim remembered her stunned disbelief, after all of Ron's bungling on missions, to have him emerge from the manor as the winner....

Time shifted forward. The sitch was over, and her younger self was still in Larry's room, listening to him talking about movies again as if nothing had interrupted them.

'...and the rebellion on Vernalus was given such a passing mention in the film, I wrote my _own_ story about the battle. You can imagine the debates that raged when I posted it on the fan site, Kim.'

_'Really_ Larry?' said her younger self, and again Kim could hear the poorly feigned interest.

'I'm not boring you am I?' said Larry, seeming to catch on at last.

But now Ron was there and he stepped forward, his eyes wide, his face eager. 'No, no, no, go on please - this is fascinating stuff.'

Larry's attention turned to him at once. 'Hey, wanna see outtakes from Moon Beyond Ios?'

'The deleted footage of the shrieker race?' Ron squeaked, looking like he'd won a free lunch at Bueno Nacho.

'Got it at the 99 Tulsa Convention.' said Larry proudly.

'Score!' Ron squealed, pumping his fist.

Kim was looking as her younger self smiled at them. 'You guys are the greatest.' she said. 'When the chips were down you both came through. I'm really proud.'

Ron's eyes sparkled. 'So you gonna watch with us?' he said.

Kim watched herself sidling out the door. 'Not even a chance. Later guys.' she said. And the mists rose around them again, dissolving the vision into nothingness.

The Mystical Monkey was scratching his head. 'I know a lot of stuff red, but I can't figure _you_ out! First you say you proud of them - then when they invite you to join them you slam a door in their face. I know women are famous for changing their minds but _yeesh_...'

'I wasn't really proud of myself that day.' said Kim. 'I know they came through, but...'

'You still not wanna be _seen_ with them when they doing geek stuff?' the Mystical Monkey said, cocking his head and glancing up at her.

Kim sighed ruefully. 'Yeah.' she said.

'So what _geeky_ about the shrieker race?' said the Mystical Monkey. 'Moon Beyond Ios was a cool movie.'

'It _was _a cool movie.' Kim admitted. 'But it's so _not_ cool to talk about a movie for months after you've seen it, and quoting it all the time, and _dressing_ like the characters...'

'Why?' said the Mystical Monkey. 'You talk about the games you've cheered in after they over. You try and dress like and talk like people _you_ think are cool - what the difference?'

'It's just a _movie_.' said Kim.

'It just a _game_.' said the Mystical Monkey, making clumsy imitations of cheer poses.

The mists parted again, and now Kim was standing outside of a hospital wing decorated with pumpkins and streamers colored orange and black. And she remembered, it was the Halloween when she'd accidentally used the Centurion armor. It responded to battle stress and gave additional protection to the person wearing the nano-technology bracelet. But in Kim's case, she had been stressed not by Drakken or Shego, but by a pantheon of lies she had told over the course of the evening.

She'd lied to her parents and to Ron so she could sneak off to a garage party where Josh Mankey was dressed in a pirate costume she thought was oh-so-_cute_ on him. She had felt badly about bailing on Ron, but the thought of Josh or Bonnie seeing her in that silly unicorn costume had been too much. And given a choice between an evening of serving punch to hospital patients or cozying up to Josh, there _was_ no choice in her mind.

But the stress activated the bracelet, and the nanites continued to gradually swarm over her body until she was wearing armor that was so tough she was mopping the floor with Shego, Killigan _and_ Drakken, who had shown up to steal the Centurion project.

She watched as everything came out. After her reluctant confession, her stress, and the armor disappeared. But she watched herself being frowned on by her parents, who had just declared she was grounded for a month. She saw her face fallen in disappointment as she told Josh Mankey she couldn't go back to the party with him.

But Ron suddenly appeared at his elbow. 'Psst! Mankey! I'm sitting on a list of every insomniac in Middleton!' he said, tapping a piece of paper in his hand.

Josh raised an eyebrow. 'You're talking... _trick or treating_?' he said in that dreamy voice that made Kim's knees go weak.

'But you gotta wear this!' said Ron, handing him the front end of the two-person unicorn costume. Kim remembered how she had expected Josh to laugh and refuse.

Instead he took the costume and said 'Ha ha! _Sweet_!' Then he and Ron started walking off, following a route that Ron had picked out, and she heard Ron saying 'Booyah!'

And Kim saw herself calling after them, sounding abashed and forlorn. 'So, maybe next year I can go with you guys? _Guys....?'_

Then she and the Mystical Monkey were back in the dojo. It was no longer day. The sky outside the door looked deep and red, so Kim knew the sun was setting. The Mystical Monkey was shaking his head and tutting softly. 'So....' he said, as if he had just seen something interesting under a microscope. 'Geeky stuff OK when cool-guy-hunky-face in on it, huh red?'

Kim couldn't think of a thing to say. They stood looking at each other in silence for some time.

The Mystical Monkey eventually glanced out towards the sunset. 'Guess we're done for now.' he said. 'Come back tomorrow - we start early.'

Kim walked silently to the exit, feeling somehow worse than she had the other day at the fountain. As she reached the stairs, the Mystical Monkey's squeaking voice called after her. 'And bring more....' he started.

'Nacos.' Kim said quietly, cutting across him. 'Yeah... I know.'

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_It was night, and a policeman strolled the dark streets of his beat in Go City. Things were quiet, except for the occasional chatter from his walkie-talkie, but in a city protected by famous super-heroes, things were often quiet. He walked through the plaza in front of a high-rise building, when he suddenly heard a tapping and scraping noise._

_Taking out his flashlight, he looked around through the plaza, trying to find the source of the noise. He heard the tapping again, coming from higher up. He turned, and the beam from his flashlight landed on a large bronze statue of Hego that was built to honor Team Go. A faint tap-tap-tap came to his ears again, and he turned his light, zeroing in on the noise. His flashlight revealed a large crow, which was perched on Hego's left arm. It stared with a baleful eye down at the policeman for a moment, then began pecking at the back of Hego's hand._

_The policeman yelled up at him, angry that the bird was scratching at the statue of a man they all respected. 'Shoo!' he said loudly. _

_The crow ignored him. The policeman stared, seeing a flash of metal. There was some kind of spike or tool attached to the tip of the crow's beak, and the bird was using it to peck at the statue._

_The policeman stooped and picked up a pebble, throwing it up at the crow. His first throw missed, but he picked up more stones, getting closer to the offending bird with each toss. 'Beat it!' he shouted. One stone struck the statue's arm a few inches from where the crow was perched. The crow let out one harsh croak and took flight, disappearing into the night sky._

_The policeman stayed there for a few minutes to make sure the crow didn't come back. The statue was tall, otherwise he would have climbed up to see if the bird had damaged it. When nothing happened for a short while, the cop left the plaza, wondering if he should file a report on what he had seen. He decided better of it, and eventually his mind went to other matters._

_On the back of the statue's left hand, grooved deeply into metal, three strange characters had been etched. And as the residents of Go City slept, they were unaware that there were other crows perched on statues across the city, tapping and scraping with tiny spikes on their beaks...._

_Coming Soon:  
**Chapter 27**_

_What is the fairest gem that the riches of worlds can produce?  
And will still be priceless when the proud monarch's costliest diadem  
Is counted but dross and refuse?_

_Author: If you guys can't figure out what Maze and Monkey Fist are planning by now - then I'm very, VERY disappointed in your riddle-solving abilities.... ; ) _

_Also, if anyone can think of any more things which might be included as part of the visions Kim is seeing, forward examples in your reviews, or send via PM, and I'll include them... As you've guessed (and if you haven't, shame on you), Kim is having to take a close look at herself as part of her spiritual journey. Anything you can think of that might fit along those lines from the actual TV series, pass it along. Many minds are better than one alone...._


	28. Ch 27: Truth

A Friend In Darkness  
All Things Probable 3

A Kim Possible Fanfiction  
by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and its affiliates, etc. etc.

Chapter 27  
_Truth  
Or: Do You See What I Be?_

_**Part I: Possible Outcomes**_

Kim approached Toshimiru's dojo on the third day with a sense of wary dislike. She had found it peaceful and mysterious when she had first gone into it. But now she was coming to regard it as a place of discomfort and guilt.

After the first day, Kim had gone through another series of visions she hadn't enjoyed at all. She had seen herself, speaking about how it was important to play by the rules, but then breaking into Middleton High overnight and tearing down Prince Wally's student election posters so she could put up her own.

She had seen herself lecturing Team Impossible about how it was wrong to charge money for their services, and seen her outrage when they had used underhanded tactics to try and freeze her out of the hero business. She called such tricks 'villainous'. And then she had seen herself using the laser trap they had fallen into as a weapon to make them go non-profit - under threat of lethal force. It was a tactic which was, in retrospect to her eyes, more villainous than anything Team Impossible had done.

She had seen herself getting mad at Ron for signing her into the school talent show, but then staying in simply to spite Bonnie.

She also saw the game Ron had helped win a few weeks ago, just before the whole sitch with Monkey Fist and Maze had begun. Ron was looking up at the numbers and the time left on the clock after his last score. Then he had shouted _booyah_ once again and started doing the 'bon-diggety' dance - the dance she'd expressly forbidden him from ever doing in public. Kim had seen herself in her cheerleader outfit, surrounded by chuckles from the sections of the bleachers where the visitors were seated while her face reddened with embarrassment.

'Nice moves.' said Bonnie. 'You mean after four years he hasn't worked on anything new? I mean it was a hoot the first time, but really...'

And she saw later in the parking lot when members of the opposing team had confronted them. 'If winning means being such a geek, then enjoy your victory.' the quarterback had said. She felt again the burning stares of everyone in Bueno Nacho as they ate later after the game, snickering at Ron behind his back. Ron had simply laughed the whole thing off. But Kim had been only too happy to leave Ron playing video games so she could take refuge in Club Banana.

She had seen herself, forsaking Ron on various occasions for more popular company. She saw herself hanging out with Shego after she had been hit with Electronique's Attitude reverser. She had clicked with the good version of Shego so well that she found herself spending time with Shego in preference over Ron, simply because they seemed to share so many common interests.

And yet, whenever Ron seemed to find someone besides Kim that he would like to hang out with, she reacted with almost ferocious jealously, even going so far as to eat Felix's nacos to prove she was 'one of the guys.'

She had seen Ron, risking his life to bring her an orchid from South America and thwart Drakken's plan to 'embarrass' her out of existence. While she had ignored Wade and set her life at hazard, simply to go on a date with Josh Mankey.

The Mystical Monkey had seen her date with Josh and casually asked if _Ron_ had ever been sweet on someone. And at once, they had seen visions of Ron's fumbling attempts at dating. His brief time spent trying to woo Zita Flores over games of Everlot. And his wailing cry of dismay when Kim had told him that Tara had kind of liked him - but that she was now dating Josh.

And Kim could see the casual way she herself had not bothered to tell Ron when other girls were interested in him. She had seen jealousy spring up in her again at the thought of Ron and Yori going off together on a globe-trotting adventure - without her.

And then when the Eric synthodrone had appeared, the tables had turned. She saw Ron pathetically trying to use a see-saw by himself, while she and Eric were smiling and chumming it up at the swing set.

She had seen him in Bueno Nacho, surrounded by kids buying Diablo toys and screaming into Summer Gale's microphone. _'I'm losing everything I ever cared about!' _And their conversation later in the tree house, when she realized he hadn't been talking about Bueno Nacho - he was talking about _her._

But she had been so thrilled that Eric had asked her out, she had put Ron out of her mind. 'He'll be fine.' she had said to Eric. But then she had seen something she hadn't seen before.

Ron had been in his room, trying to put on that awful hand-me-down tuxedo, and talking to Rufus as he always did. _'...And the whole Josh Mankey thing?'_ he had said,_ 'You know, I was never in favor of that. But I was there for Kim. Something's different now. There's something between us. Who am I kidding? That's not different. Something's been there a long time. I think there's something there. Does she?' _

And once he was dressed, he stood in front of the mirror. '_I think I'm ready. Not just for the dance, either. But to do what no man should ever have to do - talk about his feelings! I know. It's humiliating. But Kim's worth it!'_

_'Mm-hmm!'_ Rufus had said.

Then the normal doubt and look of fear had returned to Ron's face. _'What if she really, really likes this Eric guy and I show up yapping about my feelings - and she wants Erik, not me... We're talking total flame-out! Oh man... Not to mention what it would do to our friendship.'_

And Kim had watched him as he abandoned the Prom, slouching off to Bueno Nacho alone.

'Mmm...' the Mystical Monkey had said, shaking his head. 'That really pathetic.'

'He's _not_ pathetic!' Kim snapped. 'He's.... _Ron_.'

The Mystical Monkey's brows knitted. 'Oh....' he said. 'He _Ron_. Thanks red, I kinda confused there for a moment.'

But Kim knew how it had turned out. She had seen Ron come to her again, as he always did. And during the Diablo sitch, when Eric had betrayed her and she had lost all hope, Ron was the one who brought her back. And together, they had once again saved the day. But the most wonderful part of the night was going back to the Prom with Ron, hand in hand for the first time as something more than just friends. The Mystical Monkey had sniffed at that point, blowing his nose noisily with a corner of his robe.

But soon after that, she had seen herself shaking her head at Dr. Director and agents of Global Justice, who believed that the 'Ron Factor' was the reason Kim kept succeeding in her missions. She had felt deep down that the idea of _Ron_ being the reason for her success was laughable, and said out loud that Ron was 'prone to big-heady-ness'. But then she had seen herself coaching her brothers' soccer team, using her position to control them all with iron fisted strictness.

She saw herself bristling with jealousy in Home Ec class while Ron dazzled everyone with his cooking skills, while she could barely turn on a blender without it exploding. And while she had learned to benefit from Ron's zen-like attitude about cooking, she had once again resented his skill overshadowing hers, as she had with his Bueno Nacho job.

And finally she had seen the caper with Adrena Lynn at Russ Cueler's mansion, just a few days before Ron had been banished. She saw Ron save the day, and A. U. Dibble appearing suddenly at the manor to report the story, his microphone in hand.

'I was rescued by this boy right here.' Russ had said, putting a large, powerful hand on Ron's shoulder.

'And what's your name, son?' said Dibble, pushing the microphone right under Ron's nose.

Ron looked slightly surprised, but responded. 'Ah... Ron. Ron Stoppable.' he said, smiling faintly. But Dibble was already pulling back and facing the cameraman.

'And there you have it folks. Kim Possible fails - Ron Stoppable sails.'

Kim had seen herself standing behind them, clumped in mud from her chasing Adrena Lynn. 'Hey!' she had shouted, but Dibble continued as if he hadn't heard her.

'Is the former daredevil stuntwoman too much for the famous Kim Possible? Only time will tell - but let's hope next time she has her new partner Ron Stoppable alongside her to hopefully forestall any further crimes.'

Ron raised his hand. 'Uh, excuse me, I'm _not_ a partner, I'm the sidekick.' he said. 'And what do you mean _new_? I've been with her since the day she started saving the world! Hasn't _anyone _noticed?'

The Mystical Monkey had watched the whole thing with a curious expression. 'I know I just an observer here,' he said in his squeaky voice. 'But it seem to me every time the Chosen One try to step up, you smack him down. You afraid he might look as good as you? Or better?'

Kim again had been unable to answer, because she remembered all too well how she had felt that day with Ron getting the glory while she stood behind him. After being beaten by Adrena in the Big Four factory, she had wished Ron was a little _better_. But after he had inadvertently shown her up at the Cueler mansion, she'd resented it. _'I want him to be better.' _she remembered thinking. _'But not better than me.'_

And again when the visions had finally ceased, the day was drawing to it's end. And the Mystical Monkey had bidden her to come back again the next day.

- + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - +

She stood at the stairs leading up into the dojo with another Naco bag in her hand. Somehow, the ascent up the stairs was harder, and she climbed slowly, wondering what she was going to have to go through.

The Mystical Monkey again appeared as if from behind, pulling the Nacos out of her hand and shambling off to devour them at the foot of the Buddha statue. She waited while he ate his Naco tribute, staring out the door towards the distant mountain horizon. The clouds were painted with brilliant streaks of yellow and orange with the rising of the sun.

The munching and slurping sounds of his eating eventually slowed and then ended. She heard the thumping sound of his staff as he tottered over to join her. 'OK red,' he said, rubbing his hands together. 'You ready to start again?' He held out his hand to her.

Kim hesitated before taking it. 'Am I going to have to see the same kinds of things I saw before?'

The Mystical Monkey scratched his head with the end of his staff. 'I donno,' he said. 'Maybe - does it matter?' To Kim, it _did_ matter. But she didn't know how to give voice to what she was feeling. But the Mystical Monkey seemed to catch on. 'You _scared_, red?' he said, looking at her piercingly.

And before she could answer, the mists rose around them. They swirled and rippled, and then parted, showing a much younger version of Ron sitting inside a wooden cabin and wearing a coonskin cap.

She was seeing Ron at Wannaweep, cringing in fear as he was terrorized daily by their monkey mascot, and the deep phobias it had left in him. But years later, he thought Kim had _become_ a monkey because of Monkey King amulet.

But Ron had fought back his monkey phobia and done his best to look after her. He'd spent the whole day in Chippy's company, almost forming a bond with him, despite his fears.

Then the visions shifted, and Kim saw herself, trembling in fear in front of a dog-sized cockroach. Dr. Chester Yapese had made other roaches as large as a truck. Kim had felt a fear like she'd never known before as she saw them rampaging through Middleton. In an alley between two buildings, Kim suggested Ron should use his bond with Roachie to try and _talk_ to the other roaches.

'Gah!' she screamed, seeing a roach as large as a school bus bearing down on them. But Ron hadn't noticed.

'Gah? What's Gah?' he said. 'You know if your trying to speak roach, you got it all wrong KP! You gotta click with your mandible.' Then he finally turned and saw the giant roach, and his jaw lowered. 'Oh...' he said weakly.

'Okay Mr. Mandible, you're on!' Kim said, and she _pushed_ him forwards towards the attacking roach, while she fled down the alley. Luckily, Roachie saved the day by stepping between Ron and the giant roach, talking it out of attacking.

Kim looked at herself in shock. It was one thing watching Ron running from danger - he did it so often she had almost come to expect it. But to see _herself_ - pushing him into harm's way while she ran to save her own skin?

Then she was in her cousin Joss' room, listening to her going on about Ron while she taped up pictures of him around her mirror. 'Ron's afraid of everything, but does he let his fears keep him from sidekicking?' she said with her drawling accent.

'I do not!' said Ron, who was smiling and adjusting his collar.

'Let's face it Kim, you can do anything!' Joss continued. 'So facin' all those dangers and villains, well... it's just like ya say: no big!'

'Well, I guess...' Kim heard herself saying, torn between relief that Joss had taken down her own pictures and regret that her cousin had found another idol so soon.

'A fella filled with that much fear always chargin' into action with you... seems to me that's a true hero.'

'I can tell she's a Possible.' said Ron with his normal exuberance. 'Smart as a whip, this kid!'

The mists rose once again, and Kim saw the dojo. She stepped quickly away from the Mystical Monkey and the mists vanished at once. Kim kept her back turned, her head down. 'What was _that_ for?' she said, and heard her voice breaking. 'Just to stick it to me that there _are_ some things that I'm scared of?' She covered her eyes, letting the moisture that was pooling beneath her eyelids get sopped up by the cloth of her gloves.

- + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - +

_In the spirit world, both Ron and Rhonda were sharing the same vision of Kim. The visions had started the previous day, passing in flashes. But Ron had done everything he could to try and focus, and gradually it reached a point where he was seeing what she was seeing. He observed the Mystical Monkey with a fidgety expression, looking ready to squeal and bolt at any moment._

_'Come on,' said Rhonda. 'He seems OK to me. He can even talk.'_

_'And how wrong-sick is that?' Ron squealed. 'A talking monkey? That's just not right!'_

_And looking at Kim's face, Rhonda couldn't help but wonder. 'Well... it's true your GF doesn't look too happy about all this.'_

_Ron fought back his monkey fear as best he could to get a closer look at Kim's face. She looked miserable, and Ron wasn't sure why. He'd also seen a number of the visions from their past that Kim had seen - and they didn't look so bad to him. It was just stuff he remembered going through with her, like a walk down memory lane. Even the stuff that had annoyed him at the time didn't seem all that bad in retrospect. He had been a little embarrassed that Kim had seen him 'talking about his feelings' before Junior Prom - a moment he'd hoped to conceal from her forever. Plus, he'd been terrified that the vision would continue as he undressed and changed into his normal clothes...._

_But now Kim was wiping her eyes and the Mystical Monkey was staring at her anxiously._

- + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - +

She heard his squeaky voice behind her. 'Red? Something wrong?'

Kim kept her eyes closed. 'Please.' she said. 'I don't want to see any more....'

The Mystical Monkey sighed. 'Red...' he said, his voice sounding confused. 'What the deal? I thought you said you want to save the Chosen One.'

Kim felt her eyes tearing up again. 'I _do_.' she said. 'But this.... _hurts_! What does me seeing all of this have to do with saving Ron?'

The Mystical Monkey shook his head. 'It got _everything_ to do with it, red.' he said. 'You said you do whatever it take to save him, no matter how much it hurt. You change your mind?'

Kim gritted her teeth, turning back to face him. 'No.' she said. 'It's just... this is so _different_!'

The Mystical Monkey scratched his chin. 'Oh, I see...' he said. 'We saw the different kinds of courage you and the Chosen One have. And the different kinds of _fear_ you both have.'

Then he suddenly went into a fighting stance. With a smoothness unlike anything Kim had ever seen, the Mystical Monkey began dancing and leaping through a flawless routine of Tai Sheng Pek Kwar. He moved through the dojo gracefully, easily splitting the practice dummies down the middle with a series of kicks and strikes. Kim watched in amazement. The Mystical Monkey had been so strange, so bizarre and flat-out _goofy_ that she had forgotten he was the source of Ron's Mystical Monkey power. And as he moved through the dojo, leaving a pile of shattered practice dummies in his wake, Kim had to admit, it was not something she would want to go up against.

As the last dummy head was broken off and landed with a rolling thud on the floor of the dojo, the Mystical Monkey returned to a ready position and stood in front of Kim. 'Bet you not scared of _this_,' he said, striking some fighting poses that seemed amateurish, but Kim could tell he was just fooling around. 'You do this all the time, right? Fight the bad guy - kick his butt! That the sort of thing you go for, right?'

Kim shrugged. 'Yeah.' she said. 'You stick with what you're good at, I guess....'

'Oh, you guess, you _guess_!' said the Mystical Monkey, mimicking her shrugging posture. 'You got the flash and the smash, and when it all over you pose for the cameras while the whole world cheer for you! Yay! Yaaaaaaaaaaaay!' he raised his hands and shook them in the air, bowing before Kim in mock adoration. 'All hail Kim Possible! Oh Kim, we love you! You the greatest! Yay, _yaaaaaaaaaaay_!!'

Kim felt a stab of annoyance. 'That's _not_ what I'm about!' she said angrily.

'Then why you wanna give up now when you need a different kind of courage?' he said, whacking her lightly on the top of her head with his staff. 'This a spiritual journey! No flash - no smash! When it all over, no one gonna come up with the cameras and the cheering and the yay, yay, yay! So you wondering - what in it for _me_? Why I gotta suffer like this if no one gonna praise me for being the hero, what the point?'

'_Stop_ it!' Kim said, balling up her fists. 'You make me sound like I'm some kind of glory-hog! I _help_ people, I _save_ them!'

'But _why_ you fight?' he said. 'For _thanks_? Guess you wasting your time now - huh, red?'

'No!' said Kim defiantly. 'I'm all about saving the world - I don't do it for thanks or for money, I do it because....' she paused, faltering.

The Mystical Monkey raised an eyebrow. 'Yeah...' he said, rotating one hand in a circular gesture. 'Go on, red.'

'Because... it's the _right_ thing to do.'

The Mystical Monkey put his face in front of hers, staring at her. 'What you fighting for _now_?'

She looked back at him, a tear running down her cheek. 'I want to save Ron.' she said.

The Mystical Monkey held out his hand. 'You coming, then?' he said softly. 'You stay on the road, no matter how hard?'

Kim took his knob-knuckled furry hand. 'Yeah.' she said. 'But do we have to keep dwelling on the _past_?'

The Mystical Monkey shrugged as the mists rose again. 'You want to see stuff a little more recent?' he said, 'I keep telling you red, this _your_ journey.'

And suddenly, Kim was standing in a dark warehouse. With a shock, she recognized it. It was where she'd had her titanic battle against Ron to destroy the Mega Synaptic Transducer. But the warehouse was mostly empty; the Transducer had not been built, and she saw Ron shackled into a chair. He was staring, his face fallen with shock, at a small chip held in front of his nose by Grimm Probable, while Rhonda stood beside him smirking.

Kim realized she was seeing what had happened when Team Probable kidnapped Ron - the day she had spent in frenzied worry, wondering where he was and what had happened to him.

'Your so-called 'friend' Wade implanted this chip beneath your skin.' Grimm was saying, a malicious sneer in his voice. 'He's had you bugged for years now - tracking you everywhere. Both he and Kim have been watching you day and night like a bug in a jar.' Kim winced. Even in her discussions of ethics with Wade it had sounded iffy - but the way Grimm was describing it sounded downright cruel.

'They... wouldn't do that.' Ron said, but his voice was shaking. 'Kim would have _told_ me!'

Kim felt a black chill inside her as Grimm spoke again. 'It's quite a thing, isn't it - to learn that all the talk about friendship and trust they've been spooning you your whole life has been nothing but a pack of lies? To know that after everything you've done for them - after all the sacrifices you've made, that they've just been using you and laughing at you behind your back! This chip has proved valuable for them, I don't doubt - but it's hard, cold proof that even the girl who says she loves you doesn't _believe_ in you!'

Ron was shaking his head, but his eyes were full of a dawning realization. 'No... _way_...' he said.

The Mystical Monkey squinted as if he had just seen a skateboarder wiping out. '_Ouch_.' he said. 'This guy really know how push a button.'

Kim shook her head. 'Why am I seeing this?' she said. 'Ron and I already had it out over the chip - he forgave me. We came back from it closer than ever - he even _kept_ the chip when I told him we didn't need it anymore....'

The Mystical Monkey shrugged. 'There something here that still rankles - maybe not him, but _you_.'

Then Kim was watching as Ron, his face blue and his mouth split into a twisted grin, dressed up as Zorpox and used the Lotus Blade to begin construction of the Transducer. He moved quickly, skillfully, eagerly. And Kim, remembering what the end result of his labors had unleashed, found her hands twitching, wanting to leap into action, to stop him. Her friends - her family - everyone she knew and trusted - turned against her - leaving her to face the battle totally alone.

But she found herself next to a table littered with parts and equipment. Grimm and Rhonda were leaning back and watching as Ron labored.

'The boy works fast, I'll give him that.' said Rhonda.

'He should.' said Grimm. 'With the motivation he's got.'

Rhonda shook her head. 'I donno.' she said. 'It feels kinda random - we're just _hoping_ that Kim gets rolled up in this and that Ron is gonna put her through the wringer. This is his GF we're talking about. Won't he switch sides on us?'

Grimm, in turn, shook his head. 'He won't.' he said. 'You saw the look in his eyes when we showed him the chip. He _knows_ we're not lying. The Attitudinator doesn't _create_ hatred - it just makes the hate that's already there easier to reach. I can see it as plain as anything - deep down, there's resentment and anger. We've just given him an excuse to act on it. He wants to get even, and if anyone on Earth has earned the right to _hate_ Kim Possible - it's Ron Stoppable.'

Kim was gritting her teeth. Even though he wasn't talking to her directly, she still felt his words slashing through her like knives. She wanted to shout, to deny it, to call him a liar. But she couldn't block out the visions of Ron locked in a closet, ditched, lied to, resented, and perhaps worst of all, marginalized. And she saw an almost savage delight in Ron's eyes as he continued building the Mega Synaptic Transducer, the machine that had thrown Kim's entire life into chaos.

_From the spirit world, Ron was waving his hands and shouting. 'Don't believe it Kim! Water under the bridge!'_

_Rhonda smirked. 'You gotta admit - it was one hekkuvva play.'_

Kim watched _herself_, wearing the bracelet that Ron had given her to shield her from the effects of the Transducer. She saw the look of sheer triumph on Ron's face as he activated the machine, and Kim understood at last why Zorpox had given her a bracelet that made her immune. There were two versions of Ron who had done it - each for their own reasons. Good Ron had done it so that Kim would have a chance to stop him. But Evil Ron had been just as eager to protect Kim from the Transducer - so she could _see_ the results of his plan with her own eyes - and suffer. And she suddenly came to realize that Zorpox wasn't just the evil part of Ron's personality - it was also the part of him that wanted revenge on _her_.

Even as the realization came to her, the visions changed. She saw Ron fighting Grimm at YoyoDyne Propulsion systems, and Grimm was taunting him as he fended off Ron's every attack. 'Kim is gonna be so tweaked about getting beat by Rhonda that she'll finally try and teach you how to use your Monkey Powers.' he said, 'And when she does, you ask yourself - is she training you because she wants you to be her equal? Or is she just using you to get what she wants?'

Then she saw herself - fighting Rhonda in another part of the building, and Rhonda was using her powers to fend Kim off. 'You jealous?' she said, 'Jealous because we did more for Ron by making him evil than you _ever_ did for him when he was good? Face it pom-pon - Ron was faster, stronger and smarter when he was on our side! Maybe he only steps up depending on the quality of the company he's with!'

Then she and the Mystical Monkey were in the karate dojo in Middleton. She knew it was shortly after Team Probable had escaped from them at YoYoDyne, and she was struggling to help train Ron.

She saw herself becoming increasingly frustrated by Ron's doubts and hesitations, until she finally said, 'I can only carry you so far. At some point you've got to start carrying yourself... You keep saying you want to step up, but you keep stepping _back_!'

Kim winced as she saw the color drain from Ron's face. 'Kim...' he said softly.

But she saw herself storming out of the dojo. 'I'm going out for some air.' she said, 'And when I come back, we can talk about whether you're serious about being a team player.'

The Mystical Monkey tapped his chin. 'Hmm - threatening students with expulsion in order to motivate them is an old sensei trick, red. Where you pick that up?' Kim couldn't tell what the Mystical Monkey was thinking, and his expression didn't seem judgmental - merely curious. But she still felt as if Bonnie had gotten hold of her diary and was reading it over the school intercom.

And lastly, she saw a vision of something that had happened only a few short days ago. She was in the cargo hold of a supersonic jet, flying to the town of Basalton to confront Monkey Fist and Maze.

She saw Grimm speaking, talking about Ron. 'In all the years that you've known him - has he ever done anything to willfully hurt you?' he said, 'He may be clumsy, ignorant and cheap - but he's never been motivated by spite. But how many times have you done things to hurt him? You've lied to him - you've ditched him - you've marginalized and criticized him at almost every level. And still he's stuck with you. Frankly, you don't deserve him.'

At the time, Kim had simply been angered by his normal head-gaming antics. But as she stood observing the scene from outside herself, seeing it in light of all the other visions since beginning her spiritual journey, she bowed her head, feeling her nails digging into her palms. The words sank deep into her. _'...you don't deserve him.'_

_**Part II: Probable Cause**_

Outside of Riddleton High, Grimm sat at the base of the school's statue of Edward Nygma, scouring it with polish. He was in the middle of detention, and Ms. Darken's first assignment had been for him to clean the statue alongside Donnie Stoneport.

It was dirty, sweaty, tedious, pointless work - just the kind of work that Ms. Darken enjoyed doling out. The statue was fifteen feet tall, not including the raised base, and they'd had to cooperate in some measure so they could reach and polish the upper portions of the statue.

Donnie had insisted on doing the upper parts, and Grimm knew it was because he wanted to be 'above' him. He might have argued, but he was too preoccupied with other things. His arms and hands went through cycles of strain and agony while he labored to remove weathering and grime from the statue, followed by short periods of relief when he paused to buff the metal with a clean cloth. But his mind was focused elsewhere.

It had been nearly three days since he'd dropped Possible off at Yamanouchi. Wade and Jade had completed the Counter-Jammer. It was an impressive construct, but according to Dementor, it wasn't nearly large or powerful enough to cover the entire globe. But Wade and Jade had not detected any activity from Maze or Monkey Fist with the Ultra-Atmospheric Jammer, which led them to conclude that they were still trying to get it working. Wade had begun work on a second Counter-Jammer, reasoning that multiple Counter-Jammers in different locations would serve to stop anything that Maze and Monkey Fist might try on a global scale.

Grimm had offered to help, but both Wade and Jade had nixed the idea, saying he'd just be in the way. And looking over the baffling schematics, he knew they had a point. So he had focused on taking care of Rueful, and organizing the homework that Rhonda would have to do when she got back. He kept his mind fixed on his belief that Rhonda would be saved somehow - and when she returned, she'd need to catch up on all the schoolwork so she could graduate on time.

He hadn't had to worry much about Monique. She had her own hands full trying to learn how to take care of Ron's needy naked mole rat, and with her own homework. But he hadn't put Possible's friend out of his mind - still suspicious that she might be acting under orders from Kim to try and scrounge up evidence to get him arrested.

But the few days in which Kim had been gone snailed by from his perspective, with little to do. Despite his communing with the Great Bear Spirit, he didn't 'feel' any closer to finding Rhonda. He thought he was still catching glimpses of her at times, but never to the point where he felt sure of what he was seeing.

'Pick up the pace, Probable.' came Donnie's voice from above. 'I want to go home before Christmas you know!'

Grimm rolled his eyes. 'What's the rush?' he growled. 'It's not like you've got a date or something.'

Donnie looked irritated. 'Who says I don't?' he snapped.

Grimm sniffed. 'Ever since Trixie started college, she hasn't given you the time of day.' he said.

'Trixie wasn't the only fish in the sea.' Donnie said, sounding resentful. 'As it happens, I've got...' and he trailed off.

Grimm looked up at him curiously. 'Got... _what_?' he said. 'Don't tell me some other girl fell for your smooth talk? Who's your new arm candy?'

Donnie's face was reddening. 'None of your business!' he said. 'Just hurry it up so we can go.'

'_You're_ the one slowing us down.' Grimm said. 'You've been working on the same spot for half an hour!'

'It's not my fault!' Donnie shot back. 'This isn't dirt, they're scratches. Someone wrote something right into the metal and polish isn't gonna take it off!'

'Wrote something? What is it?'

'I donno, it's not English.' Donnie grumbled, still scrubbing at the arm with his scouring pad. 'Looks like gibberish to me.'

It was only then that Grimm noted exactly where Donnie was working - he was perched on Nygma's arm, _at the statue's left hand_. At once, he hopped onto the statue's base, vaulted up and caught the right arm, then hoisted himself up. 'Move it!' he snapped.

Donnie looked indignant. 'I've got this one, you go back down and work the base...'

_'Move it!'_ Grimm shouted.

Donnie flinched in surprise at Grimm's sudden briskness. Grimm didn't wait, but started climbing across to the statue's left arm. Donnie yelped in protest, but smoothly curled and flipped down, dropping to the statue's base. 'Jeez Probable, what's _with_ you?' he shouted.

Grimm paid no attention to him. He had reached the spot where Donnie had been working and looked down. There, etched deeply into the metal, were the Hebrew letters Aleph, Mem, and Tav - _emet_. And like a tidal wave in his mind, he felt the thrill of answering a riddle, combined with the chilling realization of what the answer meant.

He opened his hip pouch, and the diamond-tipped stylus that Jade had given him to use in Go City was still there. He took it out and stabbed hard, drawing the point across the _Aleph_ symbol. The stylus left a gouge through the symbol with a squeal of metal on metal.

_'Probable!'_ came a sharp voice from below. Ms. Darken had suddenly appeared as if out of nowhere, drawn by whatever mysterious power she had which seemed to enable her to detect any student wrong-doing. She stood beside Donnie, who looked equally annoyed. 'What the devil do you think you're doing?' she shouted.

But Grimm ignored her. His head was buzzing as new questions exploded in his mind. _'It had to be Maze and Monkey Fist.'_ he thought. _'There's no way this is a coincidence - to have exactly these marks in exactly this spot... They must have been planning to turn this statue into a golem. But how did they find me? No... if they knew I was here, they'd have used Monkey Fist's powers to get both Kim and me. But if they don't know I'm here, then why is this statue marked? Unless....'_

He took out his communicator. Jade's face popped up, and she was in the middle of a cluster of wires and exposed metal, welding and securing connectors. 'Kinda busy, G-Man.' she said. 'If we're gonna need more of these counter-jammers, I'll need time to....'

'Jade, how many statues are there in Riddleton?' he said quickly.

Jade paused. 'I'm... not sure.' she said. 'A hundred or so I think. There's a few on the grounds at city hall, some in the parks, and a lot of the big businesses have some outside their buildings. They love showing off, you know.'

'I need to know _exactly_ how many, and where they are. It's important - and I need to talk to Twitch _now_.'

Jade caught the edge in his voice and put down her welder. 'Why...?' she said.

'_Now_, Jade!'

Still looking confused, Jade's image burst into static before it was replaced by a flashing telephone receiver which blinked along with the word 'Calling...'. It was while he waited for the other end to pick up that he noted Ms. Darken was still shouting up at him.

'Probable, if I don't get an answer this minute...' she was saying angrily.

He struggled, trying to come up with a response that would mollify her. 'The statue was _booby-trapped_.' he said. 'I just disarmed it.'

'Yeah_ right_.' said Donnie, sneering. He was standing a step or two back, obviously enjoying the sight of Ms. Darken yelling at him. 'It was just writing - you need an envelope to deliver a letter-bomb, Probable...'

Grimm ignored him, addressing Ms. Darken instead. 'Trust me, ma'am, you'll be glad I did this before long.'

'Does this have something to do with that _website_ your hacker friend runs for you?' Ms. Darken said, glaring.

'Yeah,' he answered. 'I'll cover the cost of fixing this thing when it's over...' but his attention was diverted as his communicator beeped loudly and Twitch's tired voice sounded through the speaker.

'Yo G-Man, what up?' he said. 'If this is about finding that monkey dude, my peeps are still....'

'New mission, Twitch.' Grimm said, breaking in. 'I need you and the Irregulars to check every statue in Riddleton.'

'Say _what_?' said Twitch, squinting.

Grimm brought up a graphic file of the Hebrew word _emet_ on his communicator and sent it. 'Every statue in the city.' he said. I don't care how big or small, _check_ them. Look on their foreheads or on the backs of their hands for these symbols.' He used the touch screen to highlight the _Aleph_ symbol. 'If you find them, then scratch out this mark - are you seeing this?'

'Yeah, I'm seeing it.' Twitch said, but he sounded annoyed.

_'This_ symbol,' Grimm said again, making the highlight blink yellow with one of the apps on his communicator. 'The one that looks like a lowercase "n". You got it?'

'I _got _it already!' Twitch snapped. 'But this ain't gonna be easy - you're askin' us to vandalize public property....'

'Standard fee applies.' Grimm said wearily.

'Vandalize public property!' said Twitch, sounding enthusiastic. 'No problem!'

'I'll be touching base in half an hour.' he said. 'Get going.'

Twitch looked surprised. 'What - you want it done _now_?'

'_Now_.' he said, and he closed the link. Jade's face popped back up. 'They may need maps.' Grimm said to her. 'Get as much info as you can and help them out.'

'What are you thinking?' said Jade.

Grimm swiveled the communicator so its camera was pointing at the _emet_ symbol he had scratched out. 'I just found a marked statue _here_ at the school.' said Grimm. 'You know how much I hate being wrong, Jade?'

'Yeah...' she said.

'I hope I'm wrong now. Because if I'm _right_, soon Riddleton will be the only golem-free zone in the country.'

_Coming Soon:  
Chapter 28_

_End Game_

_Author: Two years of writing. Two years of riddles, role reversals and revelations about both Kim and Team Probable. And it's all coming to a head - very, very soon! No riddle this time - in the next chapter, Monkey Fist and Maze begin their end game scenareo!_


	29. Ch 28: Endgame

A Friend In Darkness  
All Things Probable 3

A Kim Possible Fanfiction  
by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and its affiliates, etc. etc.

Chapter 28  
_Endgame_

_**Part I: The World Is Not Enough**_

Chief Sakituya stood outside his cabin at Kamp Kwitcherbeliakin, looking out over the lake. He beheld the nearby woods and forest, as well as the surrounding mountains. The sky was a deep blue, streaked with white, fleecy clouds. All seemed peaceful. There was hardly any sound, not even any bird song or insect noises.

He turned his eyes to the surrounding cabins, and again noted the utter stillness. Usually there were birds flitting curiously from cabin roof to cabin roof, squirrels and chipmunks scurrying here and there, raccoons and foxes lurking around the mess hall in hope of snatching a scrap of food. But now there was nothing, and even the wispy sound of his cloak as he turned his head seemed loud.

Then the silence was broken by a soft rustling that came from everywhere. Every leaf in every tree suddenly seemed to be astir, tossing fitfully on their branches. Gentle Paw, the grizzly bear who his friend and the camp mascot, raised his shaggy head and let out a nervous sounding growl.

'Yes _Ikkinikinsstiwa_.' said the Indian Chief. 'I feel it too. The wind has changed. The beasts of the forest are frightened and silent. Something is about to happen.'

Gentle Paw turned his massive head in the direction of the cabin where he normally slept; the cabin where Rhonda had spent a miserable summer years ago. He snorted and nodded, and Sakituya nodded as well.

'I believe you are right, old friend.' he said, and sighed deeply. He went to his cabin and fetched some belongings, closing the door behind him when he went back outside. 'I will need you to look after the camp while I am away.' he said to Gentle Paw, who bowed his head.

Sakituya made his way to the entrance of the camp, and the road which stretched out before him. He paused and looked back at the cabins, the mountains and the forest. 'It is nearly time.'

* * *

Grimm sat at the computer desk in his dim basement room, tapping his finger. Rueful was watching him, his head nodding in time to the tapping motions of his finger. Grimm had finally managed to pacify Ms. Darken about defacing the statue at school, but now he was fighting back an uncomfortable feeling. It was the same fluttering, twitching sensation in his stomach that he'd felt at the UNIT labs just before Rhonda had been banished and things had gone horribly, horribly wrong. Never before had thirty minutes gone by so slowly. He anxiously awaited the call he knew was coming, but dreaded the news he was sure it would bring.

Eventually, the chat window on his computer popped up and Twitch was there. Without waiting, Grimm spoke. 'Talk to me, Twitch.' he said quickly.

'We got to most of them.' Twitch answered. 'You wouldn't believe what we had to do to distract the people round the statues in the fountain outside the mall...'

'How many did you check?' Grimm said.

'About seventy.'

'And how many were marked?'

'_All_ of them.' said Twitch. 'At least, all the ones _outside_. The ones inside buildings were clear, so we didn't count those.'

Grimm leaned forward. 'I had Jade pass on a message to some of your overseas contacts.' he said. 'Some in Moscow, Paris, and Taiwan. Did they touch base?'

'Yeah.' Twitch nodded.

'And?'

'They found 'em there too. They're _everywhere_, dude - how did you know?'

'Later.' said Grimm anxiously. 'Did your guys scratch out the marks?'

'Some of them,' said Twitch, shaking his head. 'But we gotta be careful about this - you know what it's like in places like Iran and Russia - if the police saw anyone scraping statues, cops would take them down like _that_.' he snapped his fingers. 'Probably the army, too. It's state property over there you know.'

'They're gonna have to find a way.' said Grimm. 'Jail time will be the least of their problems if we don't get these statues fixed in a _big_ way, and fast.'

'Dude, what's going _on_ here?' said Twitch. 'What is all this?'

Grimm shook his head. 'Trust me on this one Twitch.' he said. 'Keep at it, and keep me posted.' He closed the window, and immediately Jade's picture popped up on a new chat screen, a second one also popped up showing Wade. Jade was mixing at a large vat of some white substance while Wade was welding feverishly over the superstructure of another of Dementor's Counter-Jammers.

'I can understand you not totally leveling with Twitch,' said Jade, sweat running down her forehead as she heaved the large pole in the vat before her. 'But now that it's just us - how _did_ you know?'

'A guess - a riddle.' said Grimm. 'The statue at school was marked, I'm guessing that's because they _all_ are.'

'All of them?' said Wade, '_Everywhere_?'

'That's my hunch.' Grimm muttered. 'If Maze and Monkey Fist knew where we were, they'd have hit us with everything they've got instead of just marking the statues in town.'

'How'd they reach Riddleton at all?' Jade grunted, stirring again. 'No one knows where we are.'

'Because it's not just Riddleton they reached.' Grimm said. 'I don't think they've been quiet for so many days because their Jammer wasn't working. I think they've been using it on the sly across the whole _planet_ for days. I'm not sure how exactly, but they've been using the Jammer as part of an operation to mark every statue on the face of the Earth.'

Wade was shaking his head. 'But our detector would have alerted us...'

Jade interrupted. 'It only works when they take _control_ of a satellite,' she said. 'If they've just been piggy-backing on ordinary satellite operations without breaking their normal patterns...'

'They could broadcast signals without detection...' said Wade, pausing in his welding.

'And route them anywhere on the planet.' Jade finished.

Wade slapped his forehead. 'And they could have been doing it for days.' he said.

'Long enough to mark who knows how many statues?' Jade said.

'But to what end?' said Wade.

'Come _on_.' Jade sneered. 'This is just like what Drakken did with his Diablo robots, only sneakier.'

'Yeah.' said Grimm, tapping his finger again. 'You have to figure - there are hundreds of thousands - maybe millions of statues all over the globe. If they were all marked, then Maze could use the Jammer to animate them all at once and _blammo_.'

Jade nodded. 'Instant army - in every country and ready to act once the signal goes out. An indestructible army that's immune to every conventional weapon. They may not be Diablo robots, but they won't require a coordinating signal like the Diablos did.'

'Which means even if we managed to find and shut down the Ultra-Atmospheric Jammer,' said Wade, 'The golems would still be able to act independently.'

'So I need a bottom line from you guys.' said Grimm. 'How big an area will the Counter-Jammer protect?'

'Not big enough.' said Jade, grimacing. 'It'll only cover an area about the size of the midwestern states. If we had a few dozen of them, maybe...'

'That'll have to do for now.' Grimm said darkly. 'Hopefully we can defuse most of their statues before Monkey Fist knows we're on to him. How's the Moo Goo coming?'

'I'll have a big batch ready by evening,' Jade grunted again. 'But again, it's not gonna be nearly enough...'

'I'll tell Dad.' Grimm said. 'If we get the DOD and the Army Corps of Engineers on it, we'll at least have some weapons we can use to fight them.'

'Even so, we need to determine what areas we're going to protect from the UAJ.' said Wade, breaking in. 'We can't assume that we'll clear every statue that's marked - we should use the Counter-Jammer to set some safe zones - I can even rig it so we can protect multiple areas with smaller coverage. Which areas should we focus on?'

'The general area where Riddleton is - natch.' said Jade. 'If we go down, then no one's safe.'

'And Middleton.' said Wade, defensively.

'He's right.' said Grimm. 'Monkey Fist will probably hit there full bore. Middleton's got the Space Center and a lot of telecommunication facilities - they're important.'

'Washington.' said Jade. 'Any national counterstrike will be coordinated there.'

'Where else?' said Wade.

Grimm was silent, still tapping his finger.

* * *

_ In the spirit world, Ron and Rhonda were watching Grimm coordinating with Jade and Wade, dumbfounded by what they were hearing._

_ 'Those.... jerks!' said Rhonda. 'A global golem slam-dance?'_

_ But Ron was also seeing Kim at Yamanouchi, resting after another day in Toshimiru's dojo. And he was suddenly filled with a powerful feeling that he couldn't ignore. He leaned toward Grimm, shouting and concentrating as hard as he could._

_ 'Don't forget Kim! You said she was supposed to do... something at Yamanouchi! How's she gonna do that if Monkey Fist goes after them? Haloo? You hearing me? Pro-teeeeect Kiiiiimm!!'_

_ Rhonda felt the same sense of urgency, though she couldn't tell where is was coming from. But it was so strong she found herself speaking into Grimm's other ear. She didn't yell like Ron did, but focused her mind and spoke to him quietly but firmly. 'You need to protect Kim.... I know you don't like it, but Kim's gotta be part of this - you said so yourself... You need to protect Kim...!'_

* * *

The feeling of nervousness and anxiety Grimm was feeling didn't seem to be lessening as he discussed things with Wade and Jade. He had a strange feeling of rushed annoyance that he felt whenever he was in a department store, hearing dozens of voices all around him at once. Rueful was suddenly scurrying around on the desk next to the monitor, squeaking loudly. Grimm stared at him, and Rueful started pointing animatedly at one of the pictures of Kim he had mounted on his 'Wall of Humiliation'.

And he understood. He could even half-fancy he heard imagined voices around him saying '_Don't forget Kim'_. 'Possible.' he muttered, and Rueful stopped squeaking and was nodding. 'We have to protect the Yamanouchi School.'

Jade bit her lip. 'That's gonna be tough.' she said. 'The Counter-Jammer is here in Riddleton - Yamanouchi is in Japan on the other side of the planet. The amount of land space we can protect diminishes the further away from the Counter-Jammer you get. We'd need to reduce the amount of space we cover nearby to cover a distant target.'

'We have to make it work.' said Grimm. 'The Great Bear had me take her there for a reason. We have to make sure they're protected.'

Jade turned her face to the chat window where Wade was located. 'Then it'd be nicer if we had _another_ Counter-Jammer...' she said pointedly.

'Help him.' said Grimm. 'But get a recipe for the Moo Goo ready. I'll pass it on to Dad and he can bring the military in on it.'

'If they'll believe it.' said Jade. 'This is gonna be a tough sell without evidence - all we've got now are some statues with graffiti. If that lunkhead Will Du at Global Justice didn't buy it, then world governments won't be any easier.'

'After that business in Middleton with the giant golem, I think the US will be a softer touch.' said Grimm. 'Let's move, people.'

* * *

At the Yamanouchi school, one of the many ninjas among their ranks was resting in his room when he heard a soft beeping. Master Sensei frowned on students using cell phones and the like, saying it was a disturbance to the peace and meditation that a true ninja should be able to achieve.

But Bekko wasn't just a Yamanouchi student - he was also one of the Riddleton Irregulars. He honored and respected Master Sensei, and one of the lessons that he learned as a ninja was that information was also power, so he put up with the dishonor of violating school protocol to make occasional contact with the Irregulars.

And now his communicator was beeping. He quickly answered since the paper walls of the Yamanouchi dorms weren't good for blocking sound, and he wanted to answer quietly before anyone might overhear.

'_Gashi_.'he whispered.

'Yo Bekko - it's Twitch.' came the answering voice.

'Twitch-san.' Bekko answered. 'You know it is dangerous to call outside our pre-arranged time. If Master Sensei were to hear of this...'

'Sorry, dude - it's kind of an emergency. You know that redhead chick that Probable brought to your school a few days ago?'

'Yes.' said Bekko, now curious. It was now widely known at the school that Possible-chan, who had helped Yamanouchi during the attack from the Yono, had been given the honor of using Toshimiru's dojo. Though the object of her studies was still a mystery.

'Probable thinks that some dude called Monkey Fist is gonna hit Yamanouchi so he can get to her.' Twitch said.

Bekko's hand tightened around his communicator. It was also widely known that Monkey Fist had escaped the Yono's curse and was now at large - and the memory of his attack on the school was still fresh in the minds of many students who had spent weeks repairing the damage. 'Information is power.' he said quietly. 'How should we prepare?'

'Get together as many people as you can and check every statue at or near your funky ninja school.' said Twitch. Check them for _this_.' A graphic showing the Hebrew word _emet_ blipped onto Bekko's communicator screen. 'I donno exactly what it's about, but Probable says we gotta scratch out this mark on the far left. He says it's some kind of mystical mumbo-jumbo, if you believe in magic....'

Bekko knew that Twitch didn't understand ninja training, which included the study of mystical arts, including the Yono and other things that most people would find fantastic or preposterous. So he raised no questions, and simply nodded. 'We will act swiftly, and with honor to defend our school.' he said. 'Many thanks, Twitch-san.'

'Yeah...' said Twitch, who was looking back and forth as if he were worried about being watched. 'San-san to you too. Later.'

Bekko turned off his communicator quickly donned his ninja gear, and he eyed the sais he kept next to his pillow.

It was only a few minutes later that he and a pair of other students he trusted were examining the large statue of Toshimiru in the central courtyard. 'Should we not inform Master Sensei?' said one of them, as he boosted Bekko up to the statue's shoulder.

'Unless our training has been weak, that will not be necessary.' Bekko answered in a low voice. 'If we work quickly, Sensei need never know the school was in danger.' He examined the statue's forehead and it's hands, and he spotted the symbols Twitch had shown him, etched into the back of the left hand. He didn't understand how Twitch had known they were there, but he accepted it now as a mission objective to be carried out.

But as he took out his sai and began to draw it hard across the _aleph _symbol, he was distracted. A large, black crow suddenly swooped down, scratching at his ninja hood with sharp claws. Bekko waved the bird away angrily, but it circled and swooped, passing over and pecking hard at the top of his head.

Bekko yelped, for the crow's beak was harder and sharper than he had expected. In fact if it weren't for his headband, he was sure it would have drawn blood. He glanced up and saw a flash of gleaming metal at the tip of the crow's beak. The bird was croaking angrily as it fluttered around.

One of his companions on the ground quickly reached in his pouch and cast out a fine mesh net with weighted beads at the edge, designed for slowing or tripping enemies. It swept over the crow and dragged it down to the ground where it struggled and thrashed loudly, filling the air with it's harsh cries.

'Silence it!' Bekko hissed, swiftly scraping his sai across the _aleph _symbol. He left a deep gouge across the mark and dropped back to the ground while his friends clamped their hands over the beak of the crow, stifling it's croaking. They retreated to a shaded area behind the courtyard just as some of the guards patrolling the school emerged on the battlements.

'Bekko - Kokoro - Minoru!' came a deep voice. Bekko froze, motioning his friends to do likewise as Master Sensei approached them from the main building, his kindly face now stern. Sensei looked at them, at Bekko's drawn weapon, and at the crow still struggling in their net. 'Explain yourselves.' he said, scowling.

Soon they were in Sensei's office, telling him everything. The ninja master sighed, looking down at his fingers. 'I am disappointed that you chose not to confide in me from the beginning.' he said, 'But I believe you felt you were acting in the best interest of Yamanouchi.'

'I accept all the blame, Master Sensei.' said Bekko. 'My friends acted only on my insistence - I will bear their punishment.'

'The discussion of your punishment must wait.' said Sensei. 'For am I not right in guessing that your work is not yet complete?'

Bekko looked back and forth to his companions, then nodded. 'I was warned that _all_ the statues in or around the school should be checked. Somehow, they may be used as weapons against Possible-chan.'

Sensei stroked his flowing, white beard. 'Very well. We must also determine what to do with your feathered friend.'

The group followed Sensei into another room where the netted crow had been left. But as they entered, they saw only an empty table, with an equally empty net lying on top of it. Several broken strands in the net, and an open window, told them the tale of what must have happened. Sensei turned to Bekko and the others. 'We must inform the school at once.' he said. 'Your task must be finished swiftly.'

* * *

Monkey Fist sat in a rough stone chair within their lair, twiddling his petrified fingers as he stared up at the thrumming hulk of the Ultra-Atmospheric Jammer. He sighed, checking a clock set up on one of the stone desks filled with computers and equipment. 'Progress report.' he said at last.

Dr. Drakken's head popped up above the banks of computers. 'We achieved global saturation already.' he said, checking a screen which was running a computer model. 'Your birds have marked most of the world's statues. Of course it's impossible to verify, but the areas you've targeted with your signals have covered at least 99 percent of the world's landmass. The computer is crunching numbers based on internet records of how many statues are on the Earth, estimated bird population, along with the time they've had to work. It's a rough estimate, but crows have excellent eyesight, so they should have spotted and marked any statue visible from the air....'

'Very good.' said Monkey Fist. 'Any additional markings we make now will be simple refinement - the bulk of the labor should be complete, or close to complete.'

'You know, you might have _told_ me at the outset that this was what you were planning.' said Drakken with a sulky voice.

'Now where's the fun in that?' said Monkey Fist. 'Surely in your own experience, you've observed that schemes go off much more smoothly when you don't announce them ahead of schedule.'

Drakken thought about his own plan with the Diablos and with the cupcake factory - in both instances, keeping things under wraps has yielded better results. Though in both cases, he had still lost. He bit his lip and said nothing.

There was a sudden noise as the lift connected to the Ultra-Atmospheric Jammer hummed and lowered to ground level. The door opened and Maze stormed out, looking anxious. 'I have had my feathered servants watching the Yamanouchi School, as you requested.' he said. 'And I have news.'

'Possible - you've _found_ her?' Monkey Fist said, leaning forward.

'No.' said Maze, glaring. 'But their ninja have destroyed the symbols on the statue in their courtyard! Through the eyes of the crows, I have seen others searching the school and inspecting the remaining statues.' He paused, his knuckles whitening around his staff. 'How could they have known?'

'Possible. Probable.' Monkey Fist growled. 'One - or _both_ of them are there at the school, even if you haven't seen them. They knew the secret of our golems and how to break the enchantment. They have finally deduced our end game and are moving to counter us.'

Maze's teeth were gritted. He looked back and forth between Monkey Fist and the Jammer. 'We are out of time.' he said. 'We must act _now_ or all of our work will have been for nothing!'

Monkey Fist sighed. 'Agreed.' he said. 'It's sooner than I would have liked, but it would seem that secrecy is no longer an option.' He turned to Maze, speaking firmly. 'Return to the Immersion chamber at once.' he said. 'Are you prepared to do what must be done?'

Maze nodded. 'I have been preparing for this moment for many long years.' he said.

'Even with the Jammer at full power, it may strain you greatly.' said Monkey Fist. 'Once we have begun, you must not falter until the enchantment is complete.'

'I _know_.' said the shadow shaman, and he went back into the lift, which hummed and whined as it rose back up.

Monkey Fist stared at Drakken. 'Well?' he said. 'You heard, didn't you? Put the Jammer at full power - _now_ - and prepare to use _all _the Earth's satellites simultaneously!'

Drakken began typing hard and flipping switches at various work stations. The generators at the rear of the lair revved up, filling the air with the whining of turbines and the crackling of electricity. The lights and components on the Ultra Atmospheric Jammer glowed piercingly bright. 'Their detector will pick this up.' he said. 'They'll know what's happening.'

'That won't be an issue anymore.' said Monkey Fist.

* * *

Maze hastened back into the Immersion Pod and quickly donned the gauntlets and helmet, standing inside the harness on it's raised platform. He braced himself for the massive effort that he knew he would soon have to endure as he heard the Jammer powering up all around him.

He focused his will. With the Ultra-Atmospheric Jammer at full power, and with all the world's satellites under its control, he felt again the sensation of control. He concentrated with all his might and began to chant, willing his awareness to melt into the shadows.

_ Emet - Sipimottakiksi,  
Nikaahtomaana nitaanistsi'toyiiwa!_

_ Emet - Sipimottakiksi,  
Nikaahtomaana nitaanistsi'toyiiwa!_

The Jammer projected Maze's powers, carrying his enchantment and his awareness into every satellite around the world. And under Monkey Fist's and Drakken's direction, the satellites focused that energy back down to the Earth.

Even across the half of the world that was still in daylight, Maze could feel every shadow, in every corner or crevice. At his command, the shadows spread out like searching fingers, and touched every statue which was marked with the Hebrew word _emet_...

_ Emet - Sipimottakiksi,  
Nikaahtomaana nitaanistsi'toyiiwa...!_

The symbols on every statue glowed and smoked briefly, and then the statues began to move...

* * *

In Jade's work shed, a loud buzzer blared, echoing from wall to wall. Jade left her labors, running to the nearest computer. She typed hastily, bringing up several monitoring windows. Each was was blinking red, and an interactive model of the Earth showed hundreds of blinking red dots.

'Oh _crud_.' she said, and raced to the controls to Dementor's Counter-Jammer...

_**Part II: Monkey Fist Rising**_

Mr. Probable sat behind the desk in the den of his house, looking across at his son. 'Golems?' he said at last. 'Living statues?'

'Yeah.' said Grimm, not looking his father in the eye. He looked at the pencil holders on the desk, the name plaque and the crossed flags in a display stand next to the blotter. 'I know it sounds crazy, but if your friends at the DOD give you any grief, just remind them about the giant one that tore through Middleton the other day.'

'They're still debating that.' said Mr. Probable. 'Lots of them are still saying it was just a robot in disguise. They don't want to believe in this mysticism stuff. They were focusing more on the unknown factor of that giant blue bear you used.'

'What's coming down the pike is gonna make that business in Middleton look tame.' said Grimm.

Mr. Probable didn't answer for a moment. 'If that's true, is there any chance this 'Great Bear' will help you again?' he said at last.

'I wouldn't gamble on it.' said Grimm, shaking his head.

Mr. Probable sighed. 'There are hundreds of thousands of statues across this country alone, in all kinds of sizes and shapes.' he said, 'We'd have to mount a national operation to clear them the way you described. Do you know how hard it is to get our politicians to agree on _anything_? I wouldn't trust them to open a can of sardines that was _already_ open. And a story as far-fetched as this, even if there's truth in it...'

Grimm chuckled bitterly. _'Truth.' _He thought. _'Emet means truth. Maybe this is a truth people just won't accept until it jumps to life and starts tearing up their houses...' _

_ '_'I showed you pictures of the marked statues here in town...' Grimm said, but his father cut across him.

'I'm _sold_, boy.' he said. 'I don't think you're pulling my leg or trying another head game. But even you have to realize it's going to be tough to get action on this without any proof.'

'You may have to go over the politicians' heads this time.' said Grimm. 'I don't know how long it'll be before Monkey Fist realizes we're on to his game, but when he does...'

'Well, this 'Moo Goo' gun is something my colleagues will understand at least.' Mr. Probable growled. 'Valor needs two things, strength and a weapon. I'll do what I can to push this through, but that whole Hebrew lettering business...'

They were suddenly interrupted by Grimm's communicator. It didn't make it's normal four-note beep though. It sent out a regular, grating buzz, and all it's buttons were flashing red. It was their emergency klaxon - which they never used except when there was genuine danger.

Grimm quickly picked up, and Jade's voice was shouting over the other end. '...every satellite in orbit is re-orienting!' she said. 'We're out of time G-Man, they're going live _right now_!'

'Calm down!' Grimm said. 'You've got the Counter-Jammer up and running, right?' he said.

'Yeah...' Jade said, picking up a paper bag and breathing into it.

'Then it's about to get it's baptism of fire.' Grimm muttered. 'Make sure it fends off the satellites and protects the locations we talked about. And keep helping Wade with the other Counter-Jammer. I'll be there soon....'

He turned off his communicator. Mr. Probable was holding the Moo Goo recipe in his hand, along with the gun schematics. 'Pass that on to the military brass.' Grimm said. 'They'll snicker at first, but once reports start coming in, they're gonna want as many of those as they can put together.'

Mr. Probable nodded.

* * *

_In China, the Terra Cotta warriors suddenly leaped from their stands and charged. The Chinese army weren't sure what to do. The military squads near the popular display were assigned to protect the ancient statues from vandals and clumsy tourists - harming the statues was against their orders._

_ But as the statues crashed into their ranks, several soldiers opened fire. The bullets from their weapons sang off the magically animated stone as the golems advanced. Dragon statues and other stone sculptures, long admired as art and decoration, sprang to life in every town and city, joining the fray..._

_ England and France found themselves besieged by armies of statues which they long maintained and protected as national monuments. Historical figures past and present wrought chaos in the streets. In gardens, around cathedrals and in plazas up and down Europe, stone figures long seen and all but ignored were running amok and overwhelming the police._

_ Stunned residents and archeologists in Egypt watched in horrified amazement as the Sphinx heaved itself up from centuries of desert sand, sending cars flying as it swept gigantic stone paws across the surrounding roads leading to the Pyramids. In the Valley of the Kings, at Abu Simbel, the Luxor Temple and in other locations across the Nile, huge weather-scarred statues began a rampage of destruction._

_ Statues in India, Mongolia, Africa and Asia rose up and began tearing down houses, wrecking vehicles and sending local populations scattering while authorities tried in vain to stop them. In Japan, a colossal life-size statue of a Gundam mech made metallic squealing noises as it flexed it's huge limbs and began crashing forward. Some of the younger children who saw it from a distance smiled and clapped their hands until it began smashing buildings with its fists. Buddha statues and sculptures in shrines across the island wrought panic everywhere._

_ Across the United States, Canada, Mexico and South America, similar scenes of bedlam erupted as Maze's power brought his golem slaves to life. In New York City, astonished boaters near Ellis Island watched as the Statue of Liberty wrenched itself free from it's massive base. It plunged into the water and began a slow, plodding walk towards the shoreline. One of the observers on the shore started taking pictures, wondering if they were re-filming 'Ghostbusters 2'._

_ Gargoyle statues mounted throughout Brooklyn, Broadway, Lexington and across the Hudson tore loose from their grimy perches, smashing into buildings and sending the residents fleeing for any exit they could find...._

* * *

Grimm was at Jade's house, but found himself at a loss for what to do. He couldn't really help with the engineering - all he could do in the end was monitor the computers and feed information to Wade and Jade. But even then, they often asked for data which required shifting between applications he wasn't sure how to run. Despite this, Wade and Jade kept asking for his opinions and advice.

Mercenary work was so much easier in his mind. Stealth missions, covert ops, occasional confrontations - he was used to helping villains with odd jobs to _launch_ global plans. But he'd never really dealt with being on the other side of the fence and trying to organize resistance to one. Yet he found himself, simply by reason of how much he knew about Maze and Monkey Fist's plans, in a position where he was looked to as a leader figure, which he didn't like at all. For the first time ever, he found himself wishing that Kim Possible was there so she could do her normal 'take charge' routine. He kept glancing at the sidelines of the room, instinctively wanting to retreat there. Rueful was hunched over his shoulder, looking around curiously.

Jade paused in her assistance to Wade so she could dart over to the computers and check the data that was coming in. 'So far no reports of golem activity in Riddleton.' she said, sounding relieved. 'Looks like Twitch and the Irregulars came through.'

'What about Monkey Fist's lair?' Grimm said. 'I thought Dementor told you if they used the UAJ on a global scale, you'd be able to track them down.'

'He was only guessing.' Jade said resentfully. 'Turns out - he was _wrong_. Yeah, it's easier to tell which satellites the UAJ is controlling now, but it's not any easier tracing the signal to its source.'

Grimm sighed in frustration and looked at several screens showing various locations throughout Riddleton. All seemed normal. 'How are these even working?' he said. 'With the UAJ at full strength, I thought they'd take down the internet or something.'

'I'm sure they're trying.' said Wade, his voice echoing from across the shed. 'But not all internet servers use satellites to maintain their connections - a lot of them are ground and cable based. Those should be all right, unless golems start attacking them.'

'There's no telling how many statues overseas the Irregulars might have fixed before Monkey Fist's signal went out.' said Grimm. 'We'll have to assume the worst. How's the Counter-Jammer doing?'

'Looks like it's working.' said Jade. 'I checked the locations we've been covering, and there's no fighting there either. But there's massive activity in every country we've still got wired.'

'If we can hold them off long enough, we can finish the second counter-jammer.' said Grimm. 'And if we can build even more, we can gradually expand the area we cover until Maze is totally blocked, right?'

'Maybe.' Wade shouted. 'They're bound to figure out our game before long...'

'As long as we're hidden in Riddleton, that won't help them.' Grimm said. 'We can stay under their radar, just like they stayed under ours. If this was their total scheme...'

'Well the thing is, even with every statue in the world under their control, we've still got them outnumbered by millions.' said Jade. 'The golems will make a ruckus and do a lot of damage - but once word spreads about how to fight them, they'll be less effective.'

'Monkey Fist and Maze must have realized that.' said Grimm quietly. 'They're aware we knew how to break the enchantment - they must know we'll be spreading the word. Unless this attack is a distraction.' He paused, thinking. 'But what good does it do to put your enemies on high alert? All that does is give them time to gather their forces...'

* * *

In the city of Beijing, Commander Xun looked out over a sea of uniformed soldiers, each armed with rifles and handguns. Battalions of jeeps, tanks and other vehicles were arranged rank on rank. The soldiers looked focused and determined.

'Where are the air strikes?' said Commander Xun impatiently, looking around at the empty skies all around.

The communications officer looked nervous. 'Something is blocking all satellite communications.' he said. 'Our missile launchers are unable to target anything!'

'What about our pilots?' said Xun. 'Surely they don't need satellites to fly their planes!'

'Without communications, they're flying blind.' said the officer. 'They can't target accurately without guidance - they could just as easily hit us...'

Xun sniffed. 'We'll do without them then.' he said. 'The enemy's stone can't withstand our steel - prepare for battle!'

The golems running rampant through the city seemed to have gradually joined into a large group. They were working their way through the streets towards their location. The army had cleared out as many civilians as they could.

Commander Xun smiled as he saw the golems drawing nearer. It was a bizarre sight. Stone warriors, dragons and monuments gathered into a lumbering mob of attackers. They seemed to have no organization, nor did they seem to be following any kind of strategy. They were simply turning over cars, breaking windows, tearing down walls and generally doing a lot of damage. And they were walking straight into a trap.

The streets the golems had just entered were narrow and there was only one main path. As Xun had predicted, most of the golems had funneled into this narrow pathway, and were gathered in a large, disorderly mass. He put down his binoculars and shouted to the artillery units. _'Open fire!'_

The barrels of tanks, rocket launchers and mortar launchers filled the air with bangs and bursts. There was a short pause and a whistling sound as shells flew to their targets, then the area where the golems had gathered lit up with explosions that rose like fiery blossoms. Nearby buildings collapsed, consumed by the power of the bombardment. Chunks of debris flew everywhere with deafening thunderclaps. For several seconds, the streets became a billowing, roaring inferno. Then the fire dissipated and smoke and dust rose, forming an obscuring fog.

The soldiers cheered, raising their weapons high and Commander Xun nodded curtly. 'That should do it.' he said, turning to his subordinates. 'Send a tank with each infantry platoon and fan out through the city. Have them destroy any other statues that may still be....'

A shout interrupted him. Nearby soldiers were pointing down towards the blast zone. Xun raised his binoculars again. Through the gray clouds of dust, figures were still moving. A phalanx of terra-cotta warriors were plodding through the dust, heading straight for the ranks of the attacking soldiers. Dragons and other statues followed them.

'Open fire!' Xun shouted again. And again the tanks sent a barrage of shells. But the golems, though they were knocked about by the blasts, did not fall. They simply rose back up and continued to advance, slowly and relentlessly.

The infantry readied their rifles. Commander Xun raised his hand, then lowered it. 'Fire at will!' he bellowed. And a hail of bullets sang towards the golems like angry hornets.

* * *

In the Immersion Chamber, Monkey Fist looked up at a display monitor mounted on the wall while he put on the gauntlets and stepped into the circle of sensors. He watched the Chinese army battling the golems with a smirk.

'Ah, _communists_.' said Monkey Fist, shaking his head. 'So predictable. Acquire more guns and tanks, and their first instinct is to gather them all in one place to show them off. How Freudian.'

Maze was watching as well, standing a short distance away from Monkey Fist as he checked the gauntlets. Maze was puffing and winded, recovering from the exhaustion caused by animating so many statues. He had never seen a fully assembled army, and looked intimidated. 'There are so _many_ of them.' he said. 'My own tribes are small by comparison - I never imagined...'

'China is among the most densely populated countries in the world.' said Monkey Fist. 'They have innumerable weapons, and innumerable hands to wield them. Normally, that would make them quite fearsome. But now - it simply makes them a perfect choice for the second phase of our attack_._'

He turned to a speaker mounted near the monitor. 'Dr. Drakken - is the Jammer blocking them?'

'Yes.' came Drakken's raspy voice. 'They've tried launching a few missiles, but we've scrambled all their targeting systems. Even the missiles that went airborne I was able to retarget with the Jammer and send into the oceans. We're also keeping all their air forces grounded. But it won't be long before they ditch satellite control and try radios, helicopters and other stuff...'

'Not to worry.' said Monkey Fist with a wicked grin. 'All their satellites belong to us now - which means we can target them, but they can't target _us_. The people and military forces across the globe are distracted by our slaves - which means they have made themselves _vulnerable._' He gripped the gauntlets and lowered the Immersion helmet onto his head. He concentrated, focusing his will through the Immersion helmet. The UAJ crackled with energy, and Monkey Fist channeled his hate....

The gathered armies in Beijing looked up from their battles against the golems as the sky above suddenly glowed. Commander Xun was distracted from directing his troops, looking up to see the clouds above were ablaze with a strange yellow light. The light sank down through the clouds, and the entire city was bathed in an otherworldly glow, which pulsed for a few short seconds and then disappeared.

And the city was silent. The golems halted their attack and stood still, for there were no enemies left to fight. Every creature in the city, human or animal, stood petrified. And with a sudden flurry of wings, black crows which had been lurking on the edge of the city now filled the sky with their harsh croaking. They swirled and descended, lighting on every victim, and the birds began scratching at the backs of their hands, grooving the Hebrew word _emet_ in place.

Back in the lair, Monkey Fist smiled beneath the Immersion Helmet. 'And with one blow, the bulk of the Red Chinese army - with all their weapons - will be yours to command.' he said. 'Once your birds have finished marking them, you will animate them and swell our ranks with more slaves. The peasants and other citizens will soon follow - and with no one left to control, their leaders will quickly surrender.'

Maze stood apart from the Immersion Pod where Monkey Fist had taken his place, and nodded. 'It seems to be working as we planned.' he said guardedly.

'And it will again.' said Monkey Fist. 'Even now, other nations are doing exactly what our friends in China have done - gathering their armies into massive, convenient targets.'

'And everywhere they gather,' said Maze with a gleam in his eyes, 'We will strike them down. Their numbers will continue to shrink, while ours will grow with each passing hour. We will be unstoppable!'

'Speaking of which,' said Monkey Fist smugly, 'I believe I see quite a massive army assembled at the Kremlin in Russia. They did so love making statues of their beloved Lenin and Marx - I fancy they regret that now.' he concentrated again, re-focusing his will and directing it through the Jammer at his next target....

* * *

Monique and Enrique turned up at Jade's shed, which was feeling chaotic and crowded despite it's size. They pitched in with moving and lifting parts and equipment, though both of them were quiet and a bit pale. They seemed to know something big was going on, even though Riddleton hadn't been attacked by golems yet.

Rufus and Rueful were threading in and out of the counter-jammer superstructure, plugging in wires at Wade and Jade's instruction. Jade leaned in, watching Rufus wind his way through tiny twists and cracks to reach a section deep inside.

'Kind of makes you wish you could be that small sometimes.' she muttered.

'How's it coming?' Grimm said. He was helping with some of the welding, a torch in one hand and a bar of solder in the other.

'If we skip lunch, we could have it up and running in forty.' said Wade.

'Let's skip taking breathers and make it thirty.' Grimm said, darkly. 'If this works and we establish a set pattern of construction, we can pass that on to the army too. The more of these we can make, the better.'

But their bustle of labor was interrupted as the computer monitors and screens they had set up throughout the shed suddenly hissed with static. Then the static ended, and a new visage was shown.

The monitors now showed the same image of Monkey Fist's petrified face. His erudite voice reverberated around the shed as it was piped out of several speakers at once. 'People of Earth - Nations of the world - I am Lord Monkey Fist. The turmoil you are experiencing now is but a taste of my power. Even as I speak to you, our indestructible army of stone warriors are demolishing your towns and cities. Your weapons will be useless against them, and there is no hope in resisting.'

'I broadcast this message to you, feeling for your welfare. We have no wish to inflict unnecessary damage to your cities or to the population. All we ask is for your immediate and unconditional surrender. Submit to our rule, and you will not be harmed. Resist - and I fear I can make no promises for your safety.'

Video images of the battle in China, and the defeat of the army were shown. Millions of petrified soldiers and civilians stood as silent punctuation to Monkey Fist's next words. 'As you can see,' he continued, 'Our weapons can neutralize even your strongest armies. They will soon be _our_ armies. Your own military forces will fight under our control if you do not give in. Nowhere on the Earth is safe from us.'

The image changed, showing a large conference room filled with people shouting back and forth from behind raised desks with name plaques on them. It appeared to be video from a tapped surveillance camera. 'And to prove it,' said Monkey Fist's voice, 'I show you your beloved United Nations - filled with the best and brightest diplomats your societies have to offer....'

Grimm sputtered. 'Jade - we need to block the New York area...!'

But it was too late. The windows outside of the UN building pulsed with yellow light. Static momentarily flickered across the image, and when it cleared again, the body of the UN assembly stood silent, motionless and gray.

Monkey Fist's voice sounded oily as he spoke again. 'Ah... I believe we've _finally_ managed to get them to stop bickering. And I'm sure most of the world will agree I've made them far more intelligent and useful - as _paperweights_.'

Wade pulled off a headset microphone, looking up from a keyboard where he had been typing. 'It wasn't just the UN they hit.' he said, sounding breathless. 'They just took out _all_ of New York City...'

Monkey Fist's voice now had an air of false compassion. 'This world has, until now, been torn with war, corruption and hatred.' he said. 'We merely wish to end all this destructive conflict with a world united under a single rule. Once you stand together under my banner, setting aside your pride, your greed and your vain ambitions - then you will have peace. Wars will end, and a new, glorious day will rise. We await only your word to usher in a new era of tolerance and equality for one and all.

I give each country one hour to agree to my terms. We have control over your satellites, and we will be aware of any transmissions you make which give in to our demands. In every nation that surrenders, the attacks will cease. In the meantime, our servants will continue to demonstrate the futility of resistance.

Your communications are cut. Your missiles are grounded. Your armies cannot defeat us. We will continue to target your major cities, and will spare no one. To you leaders of the world, I urge you to capitulate. To the people - I suggest you press your leaders to swift agreement. You have _one hour_.'

The monitors then burst into static - a dead, heavy static that seemed to hang in the air like a hovering stick of lit dynamite. Neither Wade, nor Jade said anything. Enrique, Monique and Rufus all seemed to swallow at the same time.

'Keep working on the next Counter-Jammer.' said Grimm quietly, breaking the silence. And while the others returned to their labor, he ducked outside.

* * *

Grimm stood in the back yard of the Omo-sa house, outside of Jade's construction shed. Things seemed eerily quiet, but he was sure it was only because he knew what was happening across the world even now. But the fountains in their garden were still tinkling peacefully with the sound of falling water. Leaves were still rustling in the trees, paying no heed to the worry in Grimm's mind.

He wasn't sure why he went outside, except that he simply felt he needed some air. It didn't seem to be helping him though. He secretly hoped that he might see another vision of Rhonda, get more advice, or even (though he dreaded the prospect) another visitation from the Great Bear Spirit.

But neither happened. So far the internet was still working. Ground connections and servers were still running, but with Maze's golems on the attack, it would only be a matter of time before electrical systems were disrupted and IP servers brought down. He was alone with his thoughts, with the growing anxiety of the odds stacked against him.

The world's satellites were under Monkey Fist's control. Through them, they could target anywhere with the power of the Yono, petrifying millions at once. And Grimm knew Maze would use his powers to animate everyone who had been turned to stone, just like he had been at Basalton. The Counter-Jammers were their only hope, but even so, they couldn't protect everywhere. They couldn't be sure where Monkey Fist would target next.

Every ballistic missile depended on satellite targeting, as well as a significant amount of air force communication. All that was essentially useless now. Monkey Fist would petrify city after city, and Maze would have a limitless number of golems at his command. Grimm wasn't too big on math, but even he knew this added up to overwhelming odds. Maze's golem armies would get bigger and bigger, and eventually they would overrun any islands of resistance that Grimm or the others managed to set up. It was only a matter of time.

He leaned against the side of the shed and sighed, wondering now if it had been reckless to refuse Monkey Fist's offer....

As Grimm thought on these things, he heard a sudden voice from across the way.

'_Otaatoyiwa_!'

Grimm started, going into a defensive crouch, thinking that Maze must have found a way to launch some kind of sneak attack. But he was surprised to see a short figure standing in the shadows beneath a cluster of trees outside the Omo-Sa's backyard garden. The figure in its brown clothing blended in so well it was hard to see him until he stepped forward, his short staff rustling quietly on the grass.

Chief Sakituya stared at Grimm for several silent moments. '_Otaatoyiwa_,' he said at last, 'You must come with me - it is nearly time.'

_Coming Soon:  
Chapter 29_

_What nation is the one you will be in, anywhere you deliberately travel?_

_ Author: I know this chapter isn't really 'cheerful' holiday fare, but this is what Maze and Monkey Fist have been working towards for twenty-seven chapters! And they demanded to make a good showing of themselves. _

_ What will it all mean? How can Kim's vision quest possibly counter all of this? What does Chief Sakituya want with Grimm? Don't miss the next chapter or they'll turn YOU to stone too! Happy Thanksgiving!_


	30. Ch 29: Destination

A Friend In Darkness  
All Things Probable 3  
A Kim Possible Fanfiction  
by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and its affiliates, etc. etc.

Chapter 29  
_Destinations_

_**Coming to the Point**_

Chief Sakituya sat in the seat of a jet plane, looking horribly out of place in his Native American garb and Blackfoot headdress. He was looking rather green and breathing heavily, an airsickness bag held open in front of him.

'You all right?' said Grimm Probable, leaning over from his seat across the aisle.

Sakituya nodded weakly. 'I will be fine.' he said quietly. 'I am simply... not used to this method of travel.'

Grimm shrugged. 'You said we needed to get there quickly. This is the fastest jet we could rustle up. And it wasn't easy getting permission from Dad to have it flown in the middle of a national emergency.'

Sakituya merely nodded.

Grimm couldn't hide a smirk. 'For someone who took to flying the _Ksikkihkíni_ so easily, I'm surprised you're having so much trouble.'

The Indian Chief chuckled. 'There seems to be a difference when I am not the pilot.' he said, then leaned back, dabbing at his forehead with a handkerchief.

Grimm said nothing more, wanting to let him rest. Instead he checked on Rueful, who was nibbling through the plastic edge of a small bag of pretzels. In the two seats ahead of him, he saw the tops of two heads - Monique and Enrique. Enrique had quietly asked Grimm to have Monique seated next to him, though Monique was too busy taking care of Rufus to pay much attention.

His communicator beeped and he turned it on quickly. 'Make it fast Jade,' he said, 'It's dangerous to keep an open line while they're running the Jammer.'

'We just finished the second Counter-Jammer and brought it on line.' she said. 'I siphoned off a little protection, so we should be secure.'

Grimm breathed a small sigh of relief. 'I'm counting on you and Wade to make sure the Army has a clear procedure on building more of them.' he said. 'The bigger we can make our protective dome, the better our chances of actually making it through this mess.'

'I was wondering why you left us behind.' Jade said, sounding a little resentful. 'I was kind of getting used to doing field work, you know...'

'If things go south, you may get your chance.' said Grimm with a frown. 'By now Maze and Monkey Fist have probably hit dozens of major cities all over the world. That translates to hundreds of millions of golems. Even if we had Counter-Jammers covering the whole earth, they'd still have the numbers to put up a whale of a fight.'

'Not to mention they've still got control over all the satellites.' Jade muttered. 'All the Counter-Jammers can do is block their Yono beams. It's not looking good.'

'No.' said Grimm.

'Why are you flying out anyway?' said Jade. 'It's risky going out in the open. They could hit you in transit.'

'We should be all right.' said Grimm. 'Our flight path is out of the way of any major cities. If I know Monkey Fist and Drakken, they're probably gloating about all the cities they're taking over. I doubt they're paying attention to occasional airplanes.'

'And where _are_ you going?'

Grimm shook his head. 'Not now. All I know is Sakituya said it was important. I'll tell you more later - if there _is_ a later.'

Jade nodded, then the screen blacked out.

Grimm looked over at the Indian Chief again. His eyes were closed, and he looked like he was still fighting back nausea. He sighed, looking down at Rueful, who seemed tense, as if he were excited about something, or anticipating something.

_'I hope you're right about this, old timer....'_ he thought, settling in for the flight.

* * *

In the dark cavern of their lair, Monkey Fist looked out over the humming Ultra-Atmospheric Jammer, and Dr. Drakken, who was flitting back and forth between tables and computer keyboards.

'How is our toy holding up?' he asked. Though his tone was light, the thought that the UAJ might konk out in the middle of their operation worried him a great deal.

'Perfectly.' said Dr. Drakken, sounding both impressed and annoyed. 'I oversaw the construction myself - what did you expect?'

Monkey Fist ignored the question. 'Will it last long term?' he asked.

'Of course.' Drakken sniffed. 'There's power enough for several days use...'

'Then I think it's time to give _you_ a small reward for your patience.' he said. 'How would you like to watch us petrify all of Middleton?'

Drakken's face brightened. 'A chance to see my old roommate Possible as a lawn ornament!' he said wistfully. 'That _does_ sound like fun!'

'Set Middleton as our next target.' said Monkey Fist, smiling. 'Then sit back and enjoy the show.'

Drakken began chuckling wickedly and punching buttons on the keyboards. After a few seconds though, Monkey Fist heard a jarring whirr, followed by a high-pitched double _beep_. He saw Drakken frowning, and typing a little faster. The whirr and the beeps sounded again, and several times more as Drakken continued to type, now looking frustrated.

'Problem?' he asked.

'Something's preventing me from targeting Middleton.' he said, glowering. He typed again for a few seconds, and paused. 'I can target _around_ Middleton's coordinates... but I can't target the city itself!'

Monkey Fist was now frowning as well. 'Try the coordinates I gave you for Japan.' he said. He waited as Dr. Drakken resumed typing. After a few more seconds, the whirr and the beeps were heard again. Monkey Fist narrowed his eyes as Drakken continued to labor, but the frustrated look did not leave his scarred, blue face.

_'So they found a way to protect Yamanouchi as well.'_ Monkey Fist thought. _'Very clever, Probable. But no less than I expected from you....'_

'This is off the heezy!' Drakken grated. 'It's like there's some kind of bubble around these coordinates that the Jammer can't zero in on!'

'Are there any other zones you can't target?' said Monkey Fist, trying to keep the anger out of his voice.

Drakken shrugged and shook his head. 'I'll need an hour or so to write up a program that will detect any areas we can't target.' he said. 'Without one, we'd have to hunt every coordinate manually...'

'Then make one quickly.' said Monkey Fist, turning away. 'In the meantime, we continue taking out the densest population centers as we planned. Target Hong Kong, Seoul, Sydney, Tehran, Mumbai, Berlin and Mexico City. Once those are filled with our slaves, we will have them march against their outlying towns. Then we will target other cities until the countries either surrender... or we grind them into dust.' He strode away to the lift that led up into the Immersion Chamber.

As the elevator rose, Monkey Fist tapped his fingers and glared off into the dim caverns beyond where the Jammer stood, it's spiked summit spreading up through the large hatch in the cavern roof. _'Well played, Probable.' _he thought. _'So you found a way to block my satellite attacks. So be it. I would rather crush Yamanouchi with my own hands, anyway. If you think you can hide from me there, you're grievously mistaken. As for Possible - her precious Middleton won't escape either. Upperton and Lowerton are well populated and relatively close. I shall simply send our slaves from there to Middleton and raze it to the ground!'_

* * *

The Yamanouchi School was not devoid of technology. The students were not allowed to use electronic devices most of the time as it disrupted their meditations and ability to concentrate. But they did have devices and electricity, which were only occasionally used to gather news and information.

Master Sensei stood in a small, sequestered stone room situated in one of the buildings near the back of the school. The room was dim, and the flickering glow of the television danced across the walls. To every channel he turned, scenes of chaos reigned.

The hour Monkey Fist had given in his ultimatum had long passed. And most of the world governments had either scoffed at Monkey Fist's demands, or said they needed more time to discuss diplomatic alternatives.

And the assaults had resumed. There was a constant stream of news reports describing the attempts of cities to fend off their golem attackers. There were large statues including monuments and landmarks; human sized statues built as decorations and memorials; and even smaller statues including garden gnomes. All had been brought to life by Maze's enchantment. There were other reports of major cities being bathed in a strange yellow light from the skies - and all communication from those cities died.

A man was on camera, cowering behind his microphone, but still reporting. 'This is A.U. Dibble reporting live from Upperton, just outside of Middleton. Not since the Diablo robot attacks last year has this reporter seen such chaos and destruction!' he said, raising his voice over the tumult behind him. Citizens were fleeing down the sidewalks as the local police and militia did battle with advancing ranks of golem statues. The policemen's' guns were useless, and they were being overrun, with golems heaving their squad cars and barricades aside like toys.

Dibble kept speaking breathlessly, standing his ground in front of the camera even though the police were in full rout behind him. 'MIDX news has also learned that representatives from several countries in the United Nations are calling for negotiations with the criminal known as Monkey Fist. It is expected that several underdeveloped countries, with limited military capability, will surrender outright. With Monkey Fist's terrifying weapon seemingly able to strike at will and cripple entire cities, even industrialized nations like the US are hesitant to gather their forces in large numbers.'

A clutch of retreating policemen nearly trampled Dibble as they rushed past. Golems appeared right behind him lumbering in pursuit. Dibble's calm finally seemed to give way and his voice rose to a shout as he leaned closer to the lens. 'In the midst of all this panic, the minds of Middleton residents are all asking one question - _where is Kim Possible??'_ The camera lurched and tumbled, and the picture burst into static.

Master Sensei turned off the television set. He looked quietly over at a darker corner near the door. The Mystical Monkey was there. The silence drew out, until Sensei finally spoke. 'He will be coming.' said the ninja master.

'It too soon.' said the Mystical Monkey, shaking his head. 'She not ready.'

'She _must_ be ready.' said Sensei. 'Only the Chosen Ones can defeat them now, and only she can return the Chosen One to this world. With all the Earth in chaos, there will be no one to help the Yamanouchi School when Monkey Fist returns to finish the Yono's work. And if Kim Possible should fall here, then all hope is lost.'

'It not just Monkey Fist she need to be ready for.' said the Mystical Monkey, still looking doubtful. 'The _real_ storm still coming. And Chosen One _gotta _be ready when that happens.'

'The Chosen One believes in her.' said Sensei. 'I think, if you believe in her as well, she may surprise you.'

The Mystical Monkey stared. 'So now the student all grown up and giving the master _good advice_?' he said. 'You more wise in your old age. That really annoying!'

There was more silence. At last, the Mystical Monkey heaved a great sigh, then turned and tottered towards the door, his staff clunking at each step.

* * *

Maze stepped out of the Immersion Chamber, looking tired and winded. He sat on a raised metal bench set into the circular wall of the chamber, breathing deeply. 'The next wave of statues have been brought to life.' he said. 'But I must rest for a while. Even with the machine, it is not easy.'

'I hope you are not _too_ weary.' said Monkey Fist. 'After all - conquering an entire world takes time and effort. There are hundreds of cities to account for, and golem slaves to establish in all of them.'

'I will endure.' said Maze, still looking weak, but determined. 'Once you have used the Yono's power on the next cities, I should be rested enough to resume the labor. Have any more countries given in?'

'Things are going well on that score.' said Monkey Fist. 'Media in France have said that their government is already talking about surrender - well, that was no surprise. Several smaller nations in Africa have already given up, and in South America as well. After our attack on the Kremlin, all of Russia is in an uproar. Fear of our attacks are leading them, and other countries to scatter their armies, which only serves to weaken them. The people are terrified, and are already demanding negotiations.'

'All well and good.' said Maze darkly. 'But that does not achieve _my_ ends. You say that _Otaatoyiwa_ has somehow been blocking our attacks on Washington and Middleton...'

'The United States won't surrender overnight.' said Monkey Fist. But we have the advantage. Once more nations have fallen beneath our heel, the US will eventually stand alone. Their government will bicker about negotiations and diplomacy while we pick off city after city, until the people force their leaders to give up.'

'And then my tribe will possess their lands once again.' said Maze, his eyes gleaming.

'All that and more.' said Monkey Fist. 'As I said, the entire _continent_ will be yours to do with as you wish - so long as you leave the rest of the world to _me_. Judge now if you thought I was exaggerating. What is happening now is only the beginning. Before long, the entire world will lie at our feet. You will rule your people, and I will take my place as the ultimate Monkey Master!'

* * *

Kim ascended the steps to Toshimiru's dojo, carrying another bag of Nacos. After her latest sessions with the Mystical Monkey, she had felt an odd submissiveness. She had no longer raised objections to what she was seeing in her visions. She simply had watched as other scenes from her and Ron's lives played out before her eyes.

But even afterwards, when she was alone in her room staying caught up on her schoolwork, she could still see the visions flashing through her mind in choppy scenes. It was as if her vision quest was continuing wherever she went, even without the Mystical Monkey there to trigger them.

She wasn't sure how much longer the Mystical Monkey wanted her to keep going through this, and she wasn't sure if she even cared any longer. And it was in that state of mind that she paused and looked around before entering the dojo. The school was quiet - utterly quiet. As her eyes swept around the courtyard, she realized she couldn't see anyone. No one seemed to be training, indeed the school seemed deserted.

There wasn't even any air stirring in the surrounding trees, which was odd in the high mountain setting. Every leaf seemed utterly still. She entered the dojo and saw the Mystical Monkey standing by the Buddha statue. She set the Naco bag down next to him, then stepped back and waited.

The Mystical Monkey made no move, he simply kept staring at Kim as if he were making up his mind about something. After a minute, she ventured to speak. 'Not hungry today?' she said.

The Mystical Monkey glanced briefly, but longingly at the Nacos. 'Later.' he said, and he seemed more focused and he turned back to her. 'Follow me, Kim Possible.' He left the bag where it was, and shambled towards the rear exit of the dojo.

Kim was surprised. This was the first time she remembered the Mystical Monkey calling her by _name_. She followed after him as he moved through the courtyard of the Yamanouchi School, and back again to the meditation area behind the school near the mountain walls. Kim eyed the fountain suspiciously, but the Mystical Monkey passed the fountain and went straight to the roughly hewn rock face. 'What's going on?' she asked. He had stopped in front of a large stone door she had never noticed before. It opened silently before him. 'You aren't going to try and dunk me in a bigger fountain, are you?'

The Mystical Monkey looked at her rather seriously. 'No more training, red.' he said, shaking his head. 'Now it time.' He shambled off through the door and into a series of corridors, motioning her to follow.

The corridor he was leading her down was muffled and silent, and dark except for a few torches guttering in holders along the stone walls. She felt a curious sense of foreboding. 'All that was _training_?' she said quietly. 'Training for what?'

The Mystical Monkey looked back at her, his face both worried and sad. 'To save the Chosen One.' he said.

They entered a wide, open chamber with a high vaulted ceiling, intricately carved. There were no windows and besides the way they came in, there was only one exit, an arched doorway that appeared to lead down another corridor darkened by shadows. In the center of the chamber, the Mystical Monkey stopped and looked up at Kim, sighing heavily.

'This something you gotta do alone now, red.' he said, and Kim could almost _feel_ the nervousness in his voice. He looked down towards the darkened corridor and shuddered slightly. 'Down that hallway, you'll find a room. Chosen One's worst enemy will be there. Only way to bring him back is to _defeat_ his enemy - and you the only one who can do it.'

Kim stared at him, then at the corridor. 'Monkey Fist is _here_?' she said. 'When did _that_ happen?'

The Mystical Monkey looked even more worried. 'Chosen One's enemy been here the whole time, red. You just not ready to fight yet. But if you not ready now - you never will be.' He motioned her towards the arched doorway.

Kim strode resolutely towards the corridor, her footsteps echoing through the wide chamber. She paused beneath the archway for one brief moment, looking back to the Mystical Monkey, who seemed small and distant as he stood alone in the chamber staring at her. Then she turned and plunged into the darkness.

The Mystical Monkey sighed and looked down. 'Good luck, red.' he muttered quietly. 'I hope you know - I want Ron's enemy beat as much as you do.'

Kim could see nothing as she walked down the corridor. There were no torches in this hallway and the darkness was absolute. She slowed her pace, putting her hands in front of her in case she ran into anything, listening all the time for any sound ahead of her. She kept her footfalls as soft as she could. If Monkey Fist _was_ here, she didn't want to give him the upper hand by revealing herself too quickly.

She felt a lot more confident than before. Here at least was something she could understand - something she could relate to. Fighting an enemy and defeating him. She still didn't understand how her spiritual journey was supposed to be good training for a simple donnybrook, but if beating Monkey Fist was what it would take to free Ron, then she would do it. She kept all of the things she had learned while fighting the golems foremost in her mind as she made her way down the corridor.

_'Just scratch out the first symbol - no wait, Hebrew is written backwards - the last symbol - emet becomes met. Then he'll be helpless.'_ she thought. It sounded easy, but Monkey Fist was still agile and much stronger. Her aim would have to be true. She might only get one shot before Monkey Fist caught on to her strategy.

After what felt like several minutes, she saw a dim light ahead of her. As she kept walking, the light grew, taking shape as another arched door - a white rectangle with a rounded top that was plainly where the corridor ended and led into the next room. She slowed down and crept forward as silently as she could.

_Coming Soon:_

_Chapter 30  
Who is Ron Stoppable's worst enemy?_

_ Author: All that training with the Mystical Monkey comes down to the next chapter! Who is Ron's worst enemy, and is Kim strong enough to be the victor? Don't miss out as over 29 chapters worth of puzzle and riddles come together to pose the greatest riddle of all - will Kim ever see Ron again?_


	31. Ch 30: Kim Possible

A Friend In Darkness  
All Things Probable 3  
A Kim Possible Fanfiction  
by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and its affiliates, etc. etc.

Chapter 30  
_Kim Possible_

Kim peered out from the doorway into a room that was even wider and larger than the one she had left behind. It was full of what looked like fluted columns that stretched up to the ceiling, which was veiled in shadows. Between each column there were glittering shapes, and she couldn't quite tell what they were. The room was dim, but she could still make out the entire length and breadth of it. It was circular, with a dome-like ceiling that rose up at least forty feet from the floor, which was paved with wide stones.

But she could see no sign of Monkey Fist, and felt slightly annoyed. Was the Mystical Monkey just pulling her leg again? He'd fooled around so much during her 'training' that she couldn't help wondering if he was just kidding about this being the culmination of her mission to save Ron.

She walked warily out into the chamber, but all was still and silent except for the patter of her footsteps, which echoed loudly, despite her efforts at stealth. She reached the center of the chamber, looking around for anything that looked like a door. It was then that she noticed the spaces between each set of columns contained _mirrors._

There were dozens of them, each casting back her reflection. But each image looked different. She saw one mirror reflecting herself as she had been in Pre-K, another showed herself in her cheerleader outfit, another in her old mission clothes, another in her prom dress, another in her battle-suit. Each one matched her movements, posture and expression.

Then she turned, hearing a distant set of footsteps approaching. There was one spot between the columns that did not contain a mirror - a dark doorway leading down to places unknown. Echoing footfalls came from that space and Kim went into a fighting stance. The footsteps sounded close, too close for her to dash back into the corridor without being seen.

The footsteps grew louder, and a figure emerged from the darkness across the chamber. Kim gasped. A trim, athletic figure stepped forward. Purple clothes with a hip pouch - a head of red hair and a pair of emerald green eyes.

Kim's mouth fell open in amazement as Kim Possible entered the room, saw her, and immediately went into a matching pose. They stared at each other, their fists clenched, their eyes narrowed. Finally, the Kim who just entered smiled faintly.

'So _you're_ the one I've gotta beat, huh?' she said. 'Fighting myself - how Star-Trekky. How's it hangin, Kim?'

Kim stared back. 'Bright and breezy.' she answered, gritting her teeth. 'Though I think this is more Star-Warsey than Star-Trekky, Kim.'

'Guess it is, Kim.' Kim answered. 'Look, can I call you Kim-i-i?' It gets confusing if we both call each other _Kim_.'

'Hey, _I'm_ the real deal!' Kim snapped as they began circling each other slowly. '_You_ can be Kim-i-i!'

Kim-i-i shrugged. 'I'm fine with that - I always thought it was cute when Ron called him Sackey-i-i.'

The taunt about Ron stung Kim. She supposed she should have guessed something like this would happen - it seemed like the sort of thing that _would _happen in mystical dojo - confronting your inner self. Still, unless the Mystical Monkey was playing some kind of trick, it meant he thought that _she_ was Ron's worst enemy. All the visions she'd experienced with the Mystical Monkey came flooding back to her - all the shabby, condescending treatment she had given to Ron, and to so many others. If Kim-i-i was some bizarre physical manifestation of those negative traits, and if beating her was the only way to free Ron, then she'd mop the floor with herself no matter how weird it felt.

'All right Kim-i-i,' she said, edging her way closer, 'We both know why we're here.'

'_One_ of us does.' Kim-i-i said, smirking in a manner that rivaled Grimm in its sheer cockiness. 'Looks to me like the other is just as clueless as ever.'

They were both within easy striking distance now. Kim paused. She was curious to see what kind of move her doppelganger might try against her, and waited. Kim-i-i also paused and chuckled. 'You want _me_ to make the first move?' she said. 'You've been hanging out with Grimm too much. Maybe you should call him in to pinch-hit for you.'

'Just bring it, if you think you can.' Kim growled.

With a blurred flash, Kim-i-i struck. Kim blocked it easily, and they both circled and re-positioned themselves. Then Kim lashed out, and Kim-i-i parried the blow. They circled again, saying nothing. Kim punched and followed up with a roundhouse kick, which Kim-i-i sidestepped and ducked, going smoothly into a counter attack with her own punch and kick combo. But Kim-i-i was no more successful than Kim had been.

They circled yet again, their eyes fixed on each other, watching for any sign of an opening. Kim felt the tension, but also the old giddy thrill of a challenging fight. They both feinted and struck a few more times, almost playfully, to see if the other would make a mistake, but they both moved, attacked, blocked and countered perfectly.

And then they were fighting gloriously, moving backwards and forwards through the mirrored chamber in a graceful dance of attack and defense, of advance and retreat. In nearly every attack, she thought for an instant that she was going to land a blow, only to see Kim-i-i block, or dodge. And she herself came close to being hit several times, but managed to deflect or avoid Kim-i-i's blows at the last second.

As she fought and countered, Kim was struck by how different this battle was. It was nothing like fighting Shego. While Kim felt that Shego was her equal in a fight, her style was entirely different. Shego's moves were nearly all geared around the abilities given by her glow - whether it was powering up her sharpened fingers with cutting energy, or setting herself up to throw a fire blast.

And again, it was different than fighting Grimm. While Grimm was skilled in Tai Shing Pek Kwar, his moves were nearly all defensive, meant to tire out his opponents and leave them vulnerable to a sudden counter strike. Fighting Grimm involved him using a lot of banter to distract his opponents while getting them to doubt their abilities.

But fighting _herself_ was another matter entirely. There was a general balance between attacks and blocks, but the skill level was a total match. They both knew each other's moves and strategies, and as such, none of them seemed to be working. She fired her grappling line into the roof of the high cavern and swung herself in an arc that swept around the wide circular chamber. She built her momentum and looked down to see where Kim-i-i was so she could angle her attack.

And she saw that Kim-i-i was swinging in the opposite direction on her own grapple line. Their kicks met in mid-air, their heels smacking against each other hard and painfully. They kicked off against each other, flipping and tumbling back down to land neatly on the stone floor.

'Where'd you learn that?' Kim said, her arms at the ready again.

Kim-i-i smirked. 'Same place you did.' she said. '_Duh_.'

They both charged again, leaping and kicking, and blocking as they passed each other in mid-air. They landed, pivoted and rushed at each other to begin another chess match of attacks that all seemed to end in stalemate. And so it seemed to go on and on, each of them fighting to find a weakness in the others' defenses while their shouts echoed around the chamber and their images were reflected a dozen times from the surrounding mirrors....

* * *

In the cavernous depths of their mountain lair, Monkey Fist looked over the computer projected map of the world which showed which countries had made overtures of negotiation, and the ones that were still resisting.

But so far, none of the resistance seemed to reach a level that concerned him. The golems were immune to bullets, knives, grenades, tanks, even missiles. They never got tired; they could easily survive harsh environments, even underwater. They couldn't be poisoned or starved, and they never disobeyed orders - they were the perfect soldiers.

He supposed that he should have given the nations of the world a little longer than one hour to consider - but then _it had_ been his first time delivering a global ultimatum - he had to allow for opening night jitters. Still, he reasoned, why _should_ he give them more time? Surely they must have seen by now that any attempt to resist was useless. Best to keep up the pressure and gain faster results. And already, he was smugly pleased with the results.

Several dozen large cities across the globe had met the same fate as Beijing, New York, Moscow, and their other early targets. By his count, they now had several _hundred_ million golem slaves at their command, and the other nations of the world still hadn't even found a way to battle their first wave of animated statues.

True, the targets he was really anxious to hit were being shielded somehow. He had no doubt it was the work of Probable's and Possible's hacker friends. His attempts to use the power of the Yono to petrify the Yamanouchi School had been thwarted. But, there was always the _direct_ approach. With the level of tumult and global panic he was observing through Drakken's satellite feeds from the Ultra-Atmospheric Jammer, he felt confident enough that the time had fully arrived to step out and run an errand...

Maze was just getting up from resting after animating another wave of golems through the Jammer. It wasn't getting any easier. He remembered how simply animating _one_ statue used to drain him so severely he needed an hour at least to recover. But the Ultra-Atmospheric Jammer was able to transmit that energy and beam it through the world's satellites to the point where he could affect entire cities. It was a much more efficient and effective way to focus his power, but the Jammer did nothing to reduce the strain of using that power.

He sighed, readying himself for another effort. Monkey Fist had said he would have several other cities ready by the time Maze had finished resting, along with a list of coordinates so he would know where to target. He saw Monkey Fist approaching, dressed in a black ninja outfit, different from the one he had been using over the last few weeks.

'You are wearing your _old_ outfit again.' said Maze curiously. 'I thought you said your stone hands had difficulty with the claspings.'

'I made a special effort in this case.' said Monkey Fist with a slow smile, 'A long-awaited hour soon approaches when I will take my revenge on Kim Possible. I simply wished to dress properly for the occasion.'

'Indeed?' said Maze, his eyes narrowing. 'You speak as if you are _leaving_ the lair. Need I remind you that you work under _my _direction - and the work is not yet complete? My people are still not under my rule, and until that happens I will not release you from the Yono's curse.'

'This won't take long.' said Monkey Fist, waving his hand. 'The cities I have petrified should keep you more than occupied during my little excursion. I will return soon to resume the labor. In the meantime, Dr. Drakken can assist you in directing our minions in their attacks.'

'I will be in the rear caverns selecting a suitable team of slaves to accompany me. When I come back, I will require you to open a shadow passage that will transport us to these coordinates.' He indicated a computer screen showing an image of a mountainous region with trees.

Maze considered. It was true that it would take him some time to animate golems in several different cities, and he would most likely have to rest between each use of his powers. 'Where exactly will you be going?' he said.

Monkey Fist was striding past the generator, away into the dimness of the inner caverns. He paused and looked back. 'To _school_.' he said quietly.

* * *

Kim and Kim-i-i had momentarily paused the battle and were simply standing at the ready position a few paces apart, staring at each other. Both were panting heavily, sweat was beading on their foreheads and running down their cheeks. Their stale-mated duel had stretched out for over half an hour, until without either of them speaking, as if they both had simply run out of steam at the same time, they had stopped for a breather. As she regarded her opponent, Kim couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

The giddy thrill had worn off, replaced by a growing frustration. With her every move being matched by Kim-i-i, Kim felt that the battle was endless, and would come down to which of them would first collapse from exhaustion.

She remembered what the Mystical Monkey had said - _good guys want it more - that why they always win_. Kim had never wanted to win more badly then she did right now. But Kim-i-i looked just as determined, just as intense. It was like she was fighting for something very important, something more than just victory.

Kim felt a surge of anger. Were her 'evil' counterpart's negative traits that important to her? Were they something she had carried and nurtured to the point that her double would fight this hard rather than give them up? She launched another flurry of attacks, and Kim-i-i rose to meet her, each of them striking, countering and blocking with mirror precision.

'Always gotta be the best, don't you?' said Kim, snarling.

'You know it!' Kim-i-i answered, smirking. 'But I guess _you_ would, wouldn't you?'

Kim felt her strikes getting weaker with her weariness. But Kim-i-i seemed equally weary, with her own attacks becoming less powerful. Kim vaguely remembered one of Grimm's taunts about her fighting style. _'You fight like a stick of TNT. There's one big blast of energy, but if you can't finish the job in that one burst, you've got nothing left.'_

But still she fought on - and on. She punched, kicked, blocked, leaped, flipped, vaulted, tried every trick she knew and even a few she hadn't remembered using before. But Kim-i-i seemed her total equal in every regard. Time passed and the battle continued until Kim was no longer certain exactly how long it had gone on.

She was gasping now, and so was Kim-i-i. Both were bruised and disheveled, their hair tangled, their outfits frayed at the cuffs of their sleeves. 'Why are you fighting so hard?' Kim panted. 'Is being number one _that_ important to you? Why can't you give it up, just this _once_?'

Then Kim-i-i's eyes glistened with sudden tears. Kim blinked in surprise as two thick drops rolled down her eyes, mingling into the shining sweat that was already on her face.

'Don't you_ understand_?' Kim-i-i said, her voice breaking. 'I _can't_ give up! I _have_ to beat you! It's the only way I can save Ron!'

Kim stood dumbstruck, unsure of what she had just heard. '_What_?' she hissed.

'I swore I'd do whatever it takes to save him.' Kim-i-i said, glaring at her with a look of ferocious determination. 'I don't care how strong you are - I _love_ Ron, and if I have to beat my evil self to a pulp to bring him back, then that's just what I'll do!' and she charged forward with a cry that echoed through the chamber.

'Wait...' Kim said, going on the defensive for the first time, 'Wait!'

'You think you're all that?'Kim-i-i snarled, unleashing a whirlwind of punches and kicks. 'Well you're _not_!! You never were!!'

Kim managed to block all of Kim-i-i's strikes, but those were nothing compared to her words, each of which drove into her very core. _ 'Wait!' _she shouted, trying to make sense of it all.

But Kim-i-i seemed to be ignoring her now, utterly focused on what she was doing and saying, regardless of what Kim was doing.

'How could you treat Ron like that for all those years?' Kim-i-i shouted, tears streaming down her face. 'After everything he's done for you? There was so much you could have done to build him up - and instead you kept him down because you couldn't bear to have the spotlight on anyone but yourself!'

Kim struck back furiously. 'Shut up!' she yelled. 'That's not true! I've _helped _him...!'

Kim-i-i didn't relent; her hands and her feet were a blur of motion as she continued to strike at Kim. 'Oh you were fine when the spotlight was on him for a minute or so,' she said, her teeth gritted. 'But you didn't care because you thought he was just a stumble-bum who got lucky! You knew he'd screw up again and the attention would go right back to you where it belonged - right? And if it stayed off you for too long you went right into super-villain mode! You'd cheat, spread rumors, anything to get back on center stage! And the only times you actually wanted Ron to step up was when you could use him to get what _you _wanted!'

Kim was blocking desperately. Kim-i-i's strikes were unlike anything she'd ever faced. There was only one thing that could be driving it - and that was because Kim-i-i was fighting for something other than herself. 'Shut up!' Kim shrieked. '_I don't believe you!'_

Kim-i-i had her backed up nearly to the opposite wall. 'Why won't you give up?' she said, crying even as she continued to strike. 'Why won't you let me save Ron? Is being number one _that _important? _What kind of monster are you?!!'_

And at last Kim-i-i landed a punch. Kim flew sprawling back, landing at the foot of one of the mirrors, and as she stood back up, she saw her reflection and flinched - because her skin was a livid blue. She saw Kim-i-i's reflection behind her as well. She seemed to have a pure, white glow surrounding her.

'No...' Kim said, turning to face Kim-i-i again.

'Don't you get it?' Kim-i-i said, looking down at her and shaking her head. 'I'm not evil Kim - _you _are!'

Kim shrank back against the mirror, looking away from her reflection to the skin on her arms. It was blue, and she started trembling. 'No.. No! It's _not true_!'

'You're Ron's worst enemy - and I have to defeat you!!'

Kim snarled at Kim-i-i. 'How can you say that?' she said, suddenly aware that she was crying herself. 'I'm not Ron's enemy, _I love him_!'

_'Then why won't you let the evil go?'_

And Kim looked back into the mirror, seeing herself staring back at her, her face as menacing and twisted as anything she had ever seen on Shego, or Drakken, or Monkey Fist. Kim-i-i was standing right behind her now, no longer attacking, but staring at her with eyes that pierced her like swords.

'You went out into the world to _fight_ evil,' said Kim-i-i. 'How could you have brought it _home_ with you? You_ welcomed _it into your mind and your heart, because you thought it made you stronger, smarter and better! You didn't use death rays or doomsday machines to try and take over the world - but you were more than happy to use photo-ops and popularity contests! But when anything got in your way, you were as ruthless and manipulative as Drakken _ever _was! And Ron was always right there for you to step on whenever you wanted to look a little taller - _wasn't he_?'

Kim slid down, burying her face in her hands. 'No... _That's not true, it can't be_!'

'And you're still fighting to hold on to the evil.' said Kim-i-i, her voice now sounded almost pitying. 'You know what you have to do to save Ron, but you _still_ can't bring yourself to do it! _You have to let me save him!!_'

And Kim understood. To save Ron she had to do something she'd never done before in her life. She had to give up.

* * *

_ Ron and Rhonda were surrounded by the formless, shadowy void of the spirit world. But they were both seeing Kim's battle against Kim-i-i, as if through a fogged window. Ron had been cheering for Kim loudly at first, but during the battle he'd lost track of which Kim was the real one several times and had to pause while he tried to tell them apart._

_ But as she saw Kim falter against Kim-i-i, and heard her accusations, Ron's mouth fell open in disbelief. 'Kim-i-i is a jerk!' he said. 'Kim's not evil - talk about whack!'_

_ And as the fight continued, and he saw Kim fall to her knees with Kim-i-i prevailing against her, and invoking Ron to do it, his voice fell to a whisper. 'I didn't want this.' he said, shaking his head. 'Why is this happening to her? I never blamed Kim for anything bad that happened to me - I never blamed her for anything...'_

_ 'I don't think this is happening because you blamed her.' said Rhonda's voice softly. 'I think this is happening... because she blames herself.'_

_ And even as Ron was watching, the chamber, Kim, and Kim-i-i became clearer and clearer to his eyes. Since he had been banished to the spirit world, nothing he had seen in any visions had seemed as close to being solid as they were now. He tried to lay his hand on Kim's shoulder, but was still unable to touch her. 'Kim...' he said softly, 'I don't know if you can hear me, but please. Don't hurt yourself because of me...'_

* * *

Kim-i-i raised her head. 'He's close.' she said. 'He's always been right there beside you. Please let me win! This isn't for _me_ - it's for the boy I love!'

'But how _can_ I?' Kim said, unable to look herself in the face any longer. 'I don't _lose_! I'm Kim Possible - and I never lose...'

'You'd be surprised.' said Kim-i-i, holding out her hand. 'There are some victories that only make you weaker. Once you let the evil go, you'll wonder why you ever wanted to hold on to it in the first place. Kim - you can do anything. Just this once - for _Ron_ - let it go.'

Kim laid her hand in Kim-i-i's hand and broke down, sobbing. 'You win...' she cried. 'I just want Ron back, that's all I ever wanted - I'm sorry!'

And Kim was alone in the mirror room, kneeling on the floor, her tears dropping heavily onto the brown stone. 'I'm _sorry_...' she wept, her voice sounded in a muffled echo through the chamber.

And then came the soft patter of approaching footsteps, and the wooden clunk of a staff. 'Congratulations, red.' said a gentle voice behind her. 'You win.'

She turned and saw the Mystical Monkey sauntering towards her from the doorway where she had entered, his staff tapping at each step. He was smiling, though his eyes were looking at her with pity. She was still sobbing, and she wiped her eyes with her glove. 'I... won?' she said. 'But I can't win, I have to give up so _she_ can win...'

'And so you did.' said the Mystical Monkey. 'But she _is _you - so you still win. I gotta say, I was worried red. I hoped you would win, but there were times when I not sure you _wanted_ to.'

'What do you mean?' she said. 'Of course I wanted to win...'

The Mystical Monkey shook his head and tutted. 'Spiritual journey, red.' he said. 'This not about beating up Monkey Fist or anyone else. This about you doing something you never done before - changing your mind and your heart - and _really_ meaning it.'

Kim wiped her eyes again, but her sobbing had ebbed out. 'Why didn't you just tell me that right away?' she said.

The Mystical Monkey shrugged. 'If I had - what would you have done?' he said.

'If it was just a matter of clicking my heels three times and saying 'There's no place like Ron', I'd have done it in like a second!'

'Funny you should mention Wizard of Oz!' said the Mystical Monkey, looking delighted. 'What good witch say when Dorothy ask her that same question?'

Kim shook her head. It had been ages since she'd seen the movie.

The Mystical Monkey put his face right up to hers so they were almost nose to nose. 'She say, it not enough to just _say_ you want to go home. If I told you to say you sorry and you want him back - would you have _really_ meant it? Or would you just say, 'OK fine, me sorry, now where he at?'

Kim lowered her head. Strong and piercing, the memory came back to her. _'When you want Chosen One back as badly as you wanted to breathe, then you will be ready.'_

'I'd have thrown in, 'so not the drama', but yeah.' she said softly.

'And then you go right back to the way you were before.' said the Mystical Monkey. 'But not now. What I tell you, red? Good guys always win because they _want_ it more - they _suffer_ for it! That way they not forget! That way it _mean_ something when they make a promise!'

'Why me?' said Kim. 'Why did I have to go through all of this just to be... _sorry_ for stuff that happened in the past, sometimes years ago? It's not like Freshman Me and Senior Me were the same person - I've been changing. And other people who date have things they're sorry for. Out of all the couples in the world, _why me_?'

The Mystical Monkey shrugged. 'Yeah, not every girl on Earth go through what you did. But not every girl have a boyfriend who get banished to the spirit world by an evil shaman. That just the way it shook out for you, red. Sorry.'

Kim didn't look up. She felt the Mystical Monkey's finger under her chin and heard him speaking kindly. 'Buck up, red. There some people who would rather die than admit they wrong. Or worse - they let _other_ people die rather than admit they wrong. Those the worst kind of people. They cling so hard to pride and the evil and they won't let it go. But you did it, red. And that a victory you can _really_ be proud of.'

'But is it enough?' she whispered. 'I said I was sorry and I meant it. How can I make sure that if he comes back I don't just start treating him the way I always used to?'

The Mystical Monkey looked away, shaking his finger in the air. 'Ah....' he said quietly. 'Now _that_ a tough riddle - not because there _is_ no answer - but because the answer something that no one _want_ to hear.' He looked back into Kim's eyes, his gaze suddenly bright and piercing. 'It take hard work, effort, guarding yourself every hour, every day! You ever get into a fistfight and someone bash you upside the head? It kinda hard to remember to turn the other cheek, right?'

Kim nodded.

'Then you gotta do what you can to _remember_, red. Even when things get tough. I did my best here to make sure it something you not forget easy. The rest up to _you_.'

Kim looked up at him. 'I understand.' she said simply.

The Mystical Monkey nodded. 'I know.' he whispered. 'And now I think.... you done everything that can be expected.' He paused and then held out his furry, knobby hand. 'So how about it, red? You want Chosen One back now?'

And Kim felt another sob welling inside her, a springing of emotional desperation which left her feeling every bit as breathless as she had when she thought she was drowning in the courtyard fountain. '_Yes!_' she said, dashing the tears from her eyes.

The Mystical Monkey smiled and shuffled towards the center of the chamber. As he crossed the room, he waved off-handedly. 'By the way, pay no attention to the people behind the curtain!'

Kim turned to the side, seeing movement to her left out of the corner of her eye. Grimm Probable was walking into the room through a dark space where one of the mirrors had vanished. Behind him were Monique and Enrique. And behind them were Master Sensei and someone else she didn't recognize - a short, kind faced man who was dressed like an Indian Chief.

Sensei looked at the Mystical Monkey. 'Is all prepared, wise one?' he said, bowing to him.

'You betcha!' he answered, his eye glancing at Sakituya. Then he tapped his staff on the floor, looking up at the ceiling. 'Hey, big guy? You listening?'

There was a sudden explosion of bluish light in the chamber, and every mirror on the wall sent beams criss-crossing everywhere. A sphere of blue light grew until it revealed the gigantic form of the Great Bear Spirit, who sat on his haunches on the opposite side of the chamber, facing the Mystical Monkey like a tennis opponent.

_'I have indeed, old friend.'_ came a deep rumbling voice that seemed to sound from everywhere. _'You have done well, as always.'_

The Mystical Monkey waved dismissively. 'Yeah, yeah, yeah,' he said, 'You think you so cool with the big entrance. Let's _do_ this thing.'

As if they were doing something they had long prepared for, Sensei and Sakituya took places on either side of the Great Bear and the Mystical Monkey. The Mystical Monkey was cracking his knuckles, and looked over at Kim and Grimm.

'What you two waiting for?' he said, smiling. 'Get in the circle - they _your_ Chosen Ones - and it your love that gotta_ power_ this!'

Kim and Grimm glanced at each other, then Grimm stood between Sakituya and the Great Bear, while Kim stood between Sensei and the Mystical Monkey. The Monkey and the Bear began a series of low, soothing chants. She couldn't understand what they were saying, but an inexplicable feeling of stillness and peace seemed to wash over her, like warmth from a heater after coming in from a cold day outside. A white glow seemed to rise around them as the spirit entities continued to chant, a light that surrounded them all like a pale white dome. It was a light unlike anything Kim had ever seen before. It seemed to shine _through_ her, making everything seem pale.

The Mystical Monkey and the Great Bear Spirit seemed like bright, white flames to her eyes, radiating brightness. Master Sensei and the Indian Chief had a similar glow that seemed to come from within them as they lent their voices to those of the Bear and the Monkey.

It might have been more understanding that Kim had gained in her battle with Kim-i-i, or perhaps some insight granted by her participation in the ritual itself, but Kim realized with a start that it was their _spirits_ she was seeing.

She looked at her own arms and hands and saw a light kindled within herself, that seemed to be joined to the glistering dome that surrounded them all, connected by wispy, curling threads of light. She looked over at Grimm, and noted with some satisfaction that his spirit seemed darker than hers.

The Mystical Monkey and the Great Bear continued their low, mumbling chant for some time, until the pale light around them became stable, steady, and somehow more _solid_. The chanting stopped and all became very silent, but tense. 'Ok.' said the Mystical Monkey. 'Red? And not-so-red? You remember how you felt when you really, _really_ want your Chosen Ones back?'

Kim and Grimm nodded.

'_Hold that thought.'_ said the Mystical Monkey, then he raised his arms toward the ceiling.

* * *

_ The swirling, murky shadows that had surrounded Ron and Rhonda for so long were suddenly broken. They shielded their eyes as a tiny pinprick seemed to tear the veils of darkness apart. After spending so much time in the shadows, the tiny rent seemed to blaze like a white star, though there was no heat._

_ There was a sound like rushing wind and the rip became wider and wider. They both unknowingly held hands. 'I think this is it...' said Ron. 'You ready to check out?'_

_ Rhonda nodded, but did not answer. After spending so long in the spirit world, with only each other for company, the thought of deliverance - so long hoped for, so long denied. It seemed too much to hope for that it was really happening, like a dream she might wake from only to find herself alone in the dark once again._

_ Ron was walking forward towards the light, which was now a wide gaping doorway with vague shapes moving beyond. And his hand was pulling her with him. She followed his guidance and moved into the light..._

* * *

Kim shielded her eyes. Something was approaching as if from a distance, though it came from the center of the circle where they all stood. She saw a figure so bright, so piercingly white that it hurt her eyes to look at it. And it was moving - walking towards them, with another figure beside it. As she kept her arms raised against the shining glare before her, she saw her own spirit again, and it seemed dull and gray in comparison to the shining entity that was approaching her, like a creature made of light. She was wondering what new being this might be, when the figure suddenly stopped and raised one arm in the air, letting out a great shout.

'_Booyah!!_'

And the blinding light faded. And Ron was standing in the middle of the circle, with Rhonda Fatigable standing next to him. His arm was raised and he was smiling as if he had never left.

_Coming Soon:_

_Chapter 31  
Reunions_

_ Author: Happy New Year! No, this isn't a trick or a tease - they're really back after so many chapters apart! No riddle next chapter either - the title is 'Reunions', and there will be reunions long-awaited as Kim and Ron are back together to face the menace of Monkey Fist and Maze. What will the reunion be like? After so much time apart - can anyone say 'pathos'? But even with the return of Ron and Rhonda, will it be enough? Don't miss the next chapters coming up as the new year starts off with a bang!_


	32. Ch 31: Reunions & Councils

A Friend In Darkness  
All Things Probable 3  
A Kim Possible Fanfiction

by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and its affiliates, etc. etc.

Chapter 31  
_Reunions & Councils_

_'Ron_!' Kim shouted, and she was racing towards him, worried the spell might break somehow. The short run seemed somehow interminably long, and through the haze of her tears, she was dimly aware that she had hurled herself into his arms. And his arms, solid and warm, closed around her. And for a few glorious moments, she felt as if Ron and herself were the only ones there, connected by weeks' worth of spiritual yearning now fulfilled by physical closeness.

'Please say you're back.' she said. 'Please tell me this isn't a dream - I need to hear you say it...'

'I'm back, KP.' said Ron softly. 'And I'm not going anywhere...'

Grimm and Rhonda had collided next to where Kim and Ron were standing as they reached each other in the center of the room, and at once they started kissing.

'Whoa.' said Monique, watching the two couples. 'Stereo glomp.' She watched Kim and Ron kiss chastely but longingly, and wondered why she and Enrique had been brought along. The scene before her seemed somehow too personal and intimate, and she felt like she was peering in on something not meant for her eyes. But when Grimm had shown up with this Indian Chief - Sackajawejah or whatever he was called, they had been asked to come with them to Yamanouchi.

She wondered if it was because they, like Kim and Grimm, had gone through a lot over the many days when Ron and Rhonda has been missing. Maybe it was some kind of cosmic reward for their patience - to be a part of the reunion in some small way. But as Monique saw her best friend sobbing without restraint into Ron's shoulder, she found herself looking away. _'Way to go, girlfriend.'_ she thought, and found herself wiping away a tear of her own. _'Way to go.'_

'You did it, KP!' said Ron. His eyes were also wet, but he seemed to be trying to hold it back, as if he were embarrassed to show his feelings in front of a monkey and a giant bear. But he kept his eyes focused on her, holding her tightly as a lifeline. 'You saved me - just like you always do...'

And even though she felt happy to have him there in her arms, happy to the point of delirium, Kim still felt a sensation of shame. 'Did you see...?' she said, but she already knew the answer.

'Yeah.' he said.

His face carried no blame, or accusation. On the contrary, he was smiling and his eyes were sparkling as if he'd never been more proud of her, or admiring. But after her battle with Kim-i-i, that somehow made her feel worse. 'Ron I...' she started, but Ron interrupted.

'Kim... It's O.K.' he said. 'I saw it all - and you were right. It was no big. It never was, really.'

And she held him tight in her arms, with his arms around her. She couldn't recall ever feeling happier, but she had no words to express it. _No big_. _So not the drama._ Somehow, all of her usual pet phrases and casual slang seemed hollow and inappropriate. Whenever they had dated, something always seemed to interrupt them when they kissed. But as their lips pressed together again, she felt she could have ignored anything, even a lair exploding around them.

Master Sensei and Chief Sakituya briefly regarded each other, not having moved from where they had stood during the ritual. They simply nodded with quiet satisfaction.

Monique, in the meantime, found herself looking at Grimm and Rhonda after turning her eyes away from Kim and Ron. But this proved an even more uncomfortable sight. Rhonda had thrown her arms around him and their lips were pressing together. 'Mmmm - oh _Grimm!'_ she gasped between breaths, kissing him like a starving person tasting food after a long fast. 'Grimm I thought I'd never see you again...!'

'Me too, baby...' he was gasping, and his lips melted against hers.

Monique covered her eyes with her hands. 'Ewww!' she said, 'They're villains - and they're _kissing_! It _burns_!'

Enrique had sidled up next to her. 'Well _senorita_,' he said slyly, moving a hand toward her shoulder. 'They say that when you are in Rome...'

Monique slapped his hand away quickly. 'Back off home-boy!' she said, glaring at him. 'I'm not the one who just got back from a spirit world!'

Enrique looked up to the heavens and sighed. '_Que lastima!_' he said. 'Why do the good ones always have to be so _evil_?'

'Monique!' She heard Ron calling out here name. He and Kim were still holding each other, but now Ron seemed to have recovered enough to take stock of his surroundings. 'So you came to the welcome back party too? Badical!'

Monique felt uncomfortable with both Kim and Ron staring at her with such appreciation. 'Well...' she said timidly. 'Someone had to help set things up for another reunion.' And she took Rufus out of the hip pouch.

'Hmm hey!' Rufus squeaked, leaping down and scurrying across the room.

'Rufus! _Buddy_!' Ron shouted, and Monique couldn't help smiling as she watched the mole rat, Ron and Kim share a group hug while they both laughed and cried.

Next to them, Rhonda was squealing with delight as she caught Rueful. Enrique had turned him loose as well, and he had dashed straight into Rhonda's arms. 'Rueful - I missed you, I _missed_ you...' she sobbed, kissing the top of his furry head. She sank to her knees while Grimm knelt beside her. 'You helped get my messages through, I'm so _proud_ of you...' Then words seemed to fail her and she simply knelt there, with Rueful cradled in her arms and with Grimm's arms around her shoulders, half laughing and half crying while tears rolled down her face.

Kim could happily have stayed there for days, but at that moment, the Mystical Monkey tottered and clattered through their midst, whacking Grimm and Kim lightly on their shoulders with his staff as he passed. 'Yeah, yeah... enough with the mushy stuff.' he said casually, walking across the chamber until he was a few feet in front of the doorway that led out.

Then he turned to face them. 'OK.' he said, and he smacked a knob-knuckled fist into his palm. '_Now_ this about beating up Monkey Fist.'

Ron was still clutching Kim's hand as if he were afraid to let go. 'What... _now_?' he said. 'But we just got back!'

'The monkey's right.' said Grimm, though he also kept his arm around Rhonda's shoulders and was kissing Rhonda on her cheek between sentences. 'Monkey Fist and Maze are still out there, and they've still got the Jammer. If someone doesn't stop them, the whole world is in the soup.'

Kim kept a firm grip on Ron's hand. 'You're talking like you're still in this.' said Kim. 'I thought you said you were only helping so you could get Rhonda back. Are you gonna bolt now?'

Grimm didn't answer for a second. His glance flicked towards the Great Bear Spirit, who was still at the far end of the circular chamber. The Great Bear had said nothing since the ritual took place, but was looking silently on the proceedings, a glowing, hulking presence that Grimm at least hadn't forgotten about. 'I've still got a score to settle with Monkey Fist and Maze - for Rhonda's sake.' he said at last. 'Until that's dealt with, the mission isn't over.'

The Great Bear seemed to nod his head by the merest fraction, and then like a mist cleared away by a sudden wind, he faded from view until he vanished completely, the glowing blue of his presence fading with him.

Rhonda looked at the now empty space where the Great Bear Spirit had been. 'Oh man,' she said. 'I forgot to _thank_ him for helping you. But why'd he go, if the mission isn't over..?'

'Oh he _always_ do stuff that.' said the Mystical Monkey. 'Says if people could see him all the time, they wouldn't have _faith_....' and he made exaggerated air quotes with his long fingers.

'What about you?' said Kim. 'Will you help us?'

'Ha!' said the Mystical Monkey, pointing at her. 'That funny! You funny. What _you_ think?'

Kim smiled faintly and shook her head. 'No.' she said.

'Dang straight.' said the Mystical Monkey with a quick nod. 'After all the stuff we teach you, if you can't beat them yourselves - you don't deserve to win!'

'But our original problem hasn't been fixed.' said Grimm. 'We still don't know _where_ Maze and Monkey Fist are hiding. That was the one big reason why we could never shut them down during this whole mess - we couldn't _find_ them.'

Kim squeezed Ron's arm a little tighter. 'While you were in the spirit world, you could see us.' she said, looking back and forth at Ron and Rhonda. 'I don't suppose you saw _them_?' she ended hopefully.

'No.' they both said at the same time.

Grimm sighed, patting Rhonda's shoulder. 'Then we've got a problem.' he said. 'We can't fight them if we don't know where they are. I mean, it's not like the location of their lair is just gonna drop into our laps because Ron and Rhonda are back.'

At that instant, Kim heard her Kimmunicator beeping. She turned it on and heard Wade's voice. 'I got a hit on your site, Kim.' he said. 'It's an email with map coordinates.' The screen showed a map of the globe, which then zoomed in on the United Kingdom, then zoomed in on a series of mountains until it showed one which was blinking red along with a bright caption that read '_Monkey Fist is HERE'_.

'I don't believe this...' Kim whispered, staring at the map coordinates, another long-sought gift that was now suddenly hers. 'Who sent it?' said Kim, confused.

'No idea.' said Wade. 'It came in totally out of the blue.'

She turned to Grimm, who shrugged and shook his head. 'Don't look at _me_.' he said. 'I was here too, remember?'

She turned to the Mystical Monkey, who was rolling his staff around in his fingers, looking innocently towards the ceiling. 'Did _you_ do this?' she said.

'Who _me_?' said the Mystical Monkey, looking indignant. 'Donno what you mean, red. But what I tell you? After good guys make the tough journey, sometimes... things just go their way.'

'Then what are we waiting for?' said Ron. 'Time for another smack-down in monkey-town!'

Wade had been taking a swig from his soda when he went suddenly into a perfect spit-take, fanning a cone-shaped spray of his drink on the desk in front of him. He sputtered for a moment or so, getting his breath back. _'Ron_?' he shouted at last. 'You're _back_!'

Ron blinked. 'What about my back?' he said. But Jade had pushed Wade's swivel chair roughly out of the way, leaning in.

'Stoppable's there?' she shouted. 'That means...' and her head darted away. An instant later, Grimm's communicator was beeping loudly, and he fished it from his hip pouch. He and Rhonda were still embracing, their heads side by side as he turned on his communicator.

_'Rhonda_!' Jade's voice came from the speaker. 'Screen hugs! Screen hugs!'

'Jade!' Rhonda shouted, giving a sisterly hug to the device. 'Welcome to the party!'

Wade had wheeled his chair back into place in the screen of the Kimmunicator. 'Glad you're back, Ron.' said Wade, wiping his forehead as if he had come in from a long day's work. 'You would not _believe_ the things we've had to put up with while you were gone...' and he was looking towards Jade, who was still hugging her computer monitor while she and Rhonda bounced up and down and squealed.

'I believe it, dude.' Ron answered. 'I _saw_ some of it. Sorry about the fuss...'

'Don't be sorry.' said Kim, tightening her arm around him. 'I'd have done it a thousand times.'

'And now that we are all gathered, and the final piece of your puzzle has been uncovered,' said Chief Sakituya gravely, 'It is time we held council.'

'Quite right.' said Master Sensei with equal solemnity. 'We must prepare for an inevitable conflict. There is a council chamber in the main building of the Yamanouchi School. Our students will guide you. Sakituya and I will meet you there soon, and we shall plan for battle.' He and the Indian Chief turned and started leaving through the doorway which led back to the rear courtyard.

'Soon?' said Ron. 'Uh... _how_ soon?'

'Your sojourn in the world of spirits was long.' said Master Sensei. 'I am sure you and our other guests would appreciate a few moments to return to our dormitories and be properly... _refreshed_.' and even beneath the heavy lids, his eye seemed to twinkle as he turned and left the mirror chamber. With a mischievous cackle, the Mystical Monkey followed after them.

* * *

Ron came out of the washing room, mussing his hair and shaking his head back and forth. 'Oh _man_!' he said with a sigh. 'I never thought I'd be so grateful for a regular old bath!' He was swathed from head to foot in a clean robe. 'Feeling hot water, and cold air, all in the same minute. Spirit world's got nothing on that!'

Even though he was completely covered, Kim kept her eyes turned away, handing him a comb from where she sat. 'I thought you said you didn't get hungry or sleepy in the spirit world,' she said. 'You didn't get _sweaty_ either, right?'

'Well no.' said Ron. 'But I still _knew_ it had been ages since my last shower. It just feels better to wash it all away, you know?'

Kim was thinking again about her visions while training with the Mystical Monkey, and her battle with Kim-i-i. 'Yeah.' she said quietly. 'It does.'

Yori entered, bowing quickly before walking up to Ron with a black bundle in her hands. Kim felt a momentary flinch of indignation, still not used to the casual Japanese nature of bathing. 'Your mission clothing should be laundered and dried soon.' Yori said, handing him the bundle. 'In the meantime, we would be honored to have you wear one of our spare uniforms.'

'Hey, ninja threads!' Ron said, unfurling a black _gi_. 'Been a while! Thanks Yori.'

'_Domo_, Stoppable-San.' Yori smiled, and bowed again before leaving.

Ron had quickly vanished with a waft of steam back into the bath, but soon returned, fidgeting with the belt tied around his waist and tugging at the loose sleeves. 'I know they're cool,' he said, 'But somehow I never feel _right_ wearing these.'

'You look great.' said Kim.

'Ah heh...' said Ron sheepishly, blushing and running his hand down the back of his head.

'Hmm-hmm!' Rufus squeaked, handing Ron his belt and hip pouch.

'Oh yeah, thanks Rufus!' said Ron, putting it on. 'A guy like me can never have too many belts...'

There was a knock on the outer door, and a slender fist punched through. 'Whoa!' came Monique's voice. Why didn't anyone tell me some of the walls were made of paper?'

'That's exactly what I thought when I first came here!' Ron squealed as Kim slid open the door to let Monique in. 'I mean - this is supposed to be a ninja school! Do they really think _paper_ is gonna keep the Samurai out?'

'They want us for the meeting now, don't they?' said Kim, a comfortable thrill going through her. Despite the gravity of the sitch, just having Ron there made it seem better. Finally, it really felt like things were they way they should be. A mission upcoming, and Ron there beside her with Rufus. She had missed his silly observations, his warmth, his smile....

Monique nodded, looking down and seeing Kim and Ron's fingers interlocking as they held hands.

Soon they were heading back into the courtyard. They had just turned toward the main building when they caught sight of three other figures coming out from another one of the dorm structures - Enrique, Rhonda and Grimm.

Grimm was still dressed in his mission outfit, but it looked like Rhonda had felt the same need for a bath and a change of clothes. Her hair was still slightly stringy with dampness, but it had a fresher look about it. But Rhonda was not wearing a ninja outfit, either the standard black, or the white ones used for training and exercises.

She was wearing a pair of moccasins, a patterned brown tunic, and a strange wrap that looked like a cross between an overcoat and a robe. Ron was staring at her.

'That's... different.' he said. 'Where'd you get it? That's not Yamanouchi issue.'

Rhonda shrugged. 'Chief Sakituya brought it along with him.' she said. 'He said it was time for me to take possession of it...'

'And that's kind of weird.' said Grimm, putting his arm over Rhonda's shoulders as he glared at Ron. 'He brought an outfit for _you_ with him all the way from the States. Like he _knew_ we were all going to meet up here.'

'Yeah,' said Kim, taking Ron's hand and glaring at Rhonda. 'All of us one big happy family.'

There was silence for a moment as both teams stood opposite each other in the Yamanouchi courtyard. Kim realized it was the first time that both _full_ teams were together in the same place since the battle at the UNIT building a month ago. Back then, Kim had been fighting to defeat and capture Team Probable to the point of obsession. Now there they were, and Kim was feeling her crime-fighting instincts rising up inside her. And Grimm wasn't helping matters any, standing and glaring at Kim with his old smirk starting to return.

Ron and Rhonda were looking back and forth at them nervously. They seemed to pick up on the tension. 'Come on...' said Rhonda, 'We've still got a job to do, right?'

Grimm squeezed his hand on Rhonda's shoulder without taking his eyes off Kim. 'Yeah, _friend_.' he said. 'Save it for when the mission's over.'

Kim sniffed and pulled Ron's hand, guiding him towards the main building of the School. 'Later then.' she said. Rufus and Rueful both seemed to sigh with relief.

They were nearly at the main building when Ron suddenly stopped and turned around. 'Oooh! _Oooh_!' he squealed, pointing wildly. 'Do you _see_ that?'

Rhonda had also turned and was hopping up and down on the balls of her feet. 'I see it, I see it!' she said, her voice flush with excitement.

Kim tried to see exactly what they were staring and pointing at. From the look of it, Grimm didn't seem to get it either. 'What's the sitch?' said Kim at last, for Ron and Rhonda were both gaping, slack-jawed and spellbound, seemingly at nothing but the distant horizon beyond the outer wall of Yamanouchi. The sun had broken out from behind a bank of fleecy, billowing clouds, bathing the School in the yellow glow of the late afternoon.

'Sorry.' said Ron and Rhonda together.

'Don't mean to be all distracted,' said Ron.

'But the sun coming out... seeing it shining up there in the sky...' said Rhonda.

'...after all that time in the dark...' said Ron.

'...it's just so _bon-diggety_!' they said together, and they were both doing the bon-diggety dance in perfect synch. Then they both stood side by side, their faces upturned towards the sun, took in a deep breath, and both exhaled together.

'OK this is just freaky!' said Monique suddenly. 'Ever since you two got out of the spirit world, you've been acting like the _tweebs_.'

'Yeah,' said Grimm, and Kim picked up on the casual, but badly disguised jealousy in his voice. 'Did you guys _connect_ in the spirit world or something? Are you... _friends_ now?'

'No!' said Rhonda, with a lopsided smile. 'We just had a lot of time to hang out while we were there, and there wasn't much to do besides talk. But friends? He's more like... a _brother_.'

'And this is the _first_ time a girl has said that about me and I'm OK with it!' said Ron. He sniffed, waving his hand. 'Friends?' he said, making air quotes.

_'As if_!' said both Ron and Rhonda together. Then they pointed at each other.

'_Jinx_!' they both said. 'You owe me a soda! Jinx! Jinx... _Jinx!_' They both kept saying the same thing at the same time while Kim and Grimm watched them with a growing sense of awkwardness.

At last, both Ron and Rhonda were laughing giddily. At the end of it, Rhonda took in a rasping breath that sounded like a pig in a barnyard.

Grimm raised his eyebrow. 'What... was _that_?' he said.

Rhonda blushed for a moment, but looked at Ron, who nodded at her encouragingly. 'Grimm...' she said quietly. 'I _snort_ when I laugh...'

'I _knew_ it!' Grimm shouted. 'I _knew_ there had to be a reason why you would never laugh around me!'

'Do you mind?' said Rhonda timidly. 'I mean, once Donnie finds out he'll never let you hear the end of it...'

He was holding her in both arms again, his smirk back in place. 'You're back.'he said firmly, as if that explained everything. 'You can dress like Bozo if you want.' And he was kissing her again, while Monique groaned and looked quickly away.

* * *

'_Open fire_!'

Mr. Probable was in Washington. His DOD superiors had called him there within a few minutes of the U.N. building in New York being hit by the petrification beam. Using the plans and schematics that Grimm had given him, the army had quickly started cranking out Moo Goo guns. Mr. Probable was assigned to direct the defense of Washington DC.

The Yono's power was being blocked, but there were still a number of golems wreaking havoc in the city, and Mr. Probable looked out through his high powered binoculars towards the hills outside the city. There were masses of golems in the far distance, moving in a slow, plodding mass towards Washington. And more armies were approaching from other directions.

A volley of Moo Goo shots plastered onto the Lincoln Memorial statue, which heaved and struggled, but was stuck in place by the Goo. The assembled soldiers cheered as the statue continued to fight uselessly against the cocoon of imprisoning foam.

'That's the last one, sir!' said a grizzled looking Sergeant. 'All the statues inside the city have been neutralized!'

'Good work.' said Mr. Probable. 'Now we just have to deal with the ones _outside_ the city.'

'We may be outnumbered,' said the Sergeant grimly, 'But we're not outsmarted! These babies were a godsend.' He patted the Moo Goo gun slung over his shoulder.

'Conserve your ammo.' said Mr. Probable. 'Our people are making more as fast as they can, but we need you to make every shot count. Take your men to the city boundaries on the north flank. Reinforce the platoons stationed there.'

'Will do, sir.' said the Sergeant, and he raced off to gather his troop.

The soldier in the Jeep with him tapped the steering wheel as Mr. Probable used the binoculars to examine other areas near the city. 'There's even more coming, aren't there sir?' he said, and he sounded nervous.

Mr. Probable grunted and nodded.

The soldier sighed. 'It's looking pretty grim, sir.' he said.

Mr. Probable sat down and buckled his seat belt. 'Get us to the city's west side.' he said. As they drove, he thought about Grimm's sudden departure, and his cryptic promise.

_'I can't tell you all the details, because I'm not sure myself.' said Grimm, hefting his backpack of mission supplies. 'All I know is Chief Sakituya says it's important, and if things work out, it could mean a successful resolution for all of this.'_

At the time, Mr. Probable had leery of Grimm heading out into the thick of all this world-wide tumult. But years of seeing Grimm come back from seemingly impossible missions time and time again had persuaded him to lend out one of his DOD jets and a pilot.

But as the hours dragged by and the news got worse and worse, he become more and more doubtful. Communications everywhere were crippled and they were reduced to using telegraphs, wire phones and anything else they could muster. From the scattered and fragmented reports, a number of cities across the country had been struck. Only a few areas around the country were equipped with Moo Goo guns, and they were simply being overpowered.

_'Hurry up, boy...'_ he thought anxiously.

* * *

It was a planning session unlike any other Kim had attended. It was even stranger than having Drakken show up for dinner with someone else's mind in his body - stranger than having Team Go seated around the family breakfast table. They were gathered in one of the council chambers in the Yamanouchi School, with several lit lanterns lining the room. Team Probable was at one end of a long, wooden table.

Grimm and Rhonda were still hugging where they sat, looking quite revolting as she kept her head nuzzled against his shoulder while Rueful was curled up and trilling in the crook of her other arm. Enrique was seated next to Monique, looking hopeful, while Monique kept nudging her chair further away from him. Master Sensei and Chief Sakituya were at the head of the table. Ron and Rufus were next to her, and she kept her hand tight around Ron's. In the back of the room, half hidden in shadow, stood the Mystical Monkey. To Kim's surprise, he had not disappeared like the Great Bear Spirit had.

'Now that we know the location of our enemy, the time has come to plan a strategy of counter-attack.' said Master Sensei, his deep voice rolling through the stone room. 'They are still formidable foes, and we must not allow joyous reunions to make us careless.'

'_Sskipoyiwa_ and his shadow-medicine have become more powerful with the use of their machines.' said Chief Sakituya. 'And they have many servants now to defend them. Fighting them will not be easy.'

'Not to mention they've got a souped up Shegolem right _at_ the lair.' said Kim, remembering the battle at the labs in Go City.

'However, our enemies do _not_ know that Stoppable-san and Fatigable-san have returned.' said Sensei. 'This gives us the element of surprise - not to mention the considerable talents that the Chosen Ones already possess.'

Ron leaned in and whispered quietly into Kim's ear. 'You hear that, Kim? He thinks I'm _talented_!'

Kim felt suddenly uncomfortable. She couldn't tell if Ron was poking fun at himself or jovially agreeing with Sensei. After her spiritual journey, and all the turmoil it had caused her, hearing Ron dissing himself was something she didn't like. It was a reminder that it was talk that she herself had _participated_ in at times. She wanted to do something, to get him to take it back. But the rest of the table was staring at her, and she made a note to get back to it later.

'Well, the lair is in England, on this mountain.' said Kim, marking a parchment map that was laid out on the table. 'It must be where they've hidden the Ultra-Atmospheric Jammer.'

'Be nice if we could just take it out with a missile strike.' said Grimm in a low mutter.

'Which, with your considerable cunning, you know is impossible.' said Sensei. 'Since their machine can control, and misdirect, all satellite communications and targeting systems.' Grimm sighed and drummed his fingers on the tabletop.

'But you still flew here.' said Kim. 'They didn't scramble your navigation systems?'

'We did it the old-fashioned way.' said Grimm. 'Compasses, maps... plus the Jammer doesn't block out the stars. You can still plot a course that way. It wasn't the easiest method, but it got us to Japan.'

'Then it can get us to England.' said Kim.

'We could jury-rig some missiles to dummy-fire from the plane if we can get close enough...' Grimm started.

'We won't need missiles.' said Kim firmly. 'Ron and I have the most experience in destroying evil lairs - _and_ fighting Shego. He and I will go there and...'

She stopped, because the Mystical Monkey was loudly clearing his throat from across the room. She glanced at him, and he was shaking his head slightly. She looked at Ron, who was shrugging and looking confused. She tried again.

'Ron and I will stay here while Grimm and Rhonda...'

Again, the Mystical Monkey cleared his throat, louder than before. He shook his head again, not looking at them directly.

Now a bit flummoxed, Kim spoke more hesitantly. 'All four of us will..?' she started, but the Mystical Monkey again cleared his throat, now so loudly it sounded as if someone were trying to start the engine of an old car. Kim now glared at the simian Sensei. She had learned not to dismiss his advice lightly, but it didn't mean she felt any less frustrated by the interruptions.

The Mystical Monkey looked firmly at her now. He slowly pointed at her, then at Rhonda, then at the floor.

Kim looked back and forth between the Mystical Monkey, Team Probable, and Ron. 'OK... me and Rhonda will stay here - Ron and Grimm will go to the lair.' The Mystical Monkey nodded his head almost imperceptibly. Despite her confusion, she was pleased to see a look of annoyance on Grimm's face.

'Why do we have to split up that way?' he said. 'For that matter, why do we have to split up at all? If both Maze and Monkey Fist are in that lair, we're cutting our attack power in half by only sending in part of the strike force! I'm _used_ to working with Rhonda, and we only just saved her from the... _ow_!'

Grimm was cut off as the Mystical Monkey whacked him across the back of his hand with his staff. 'You _talk_ too much.' said the Mystical Monkey. 'Who the super-wise monkey here? _You_? No? Then go get ready - you and Chosen One go to lair!'

'But this is supposed to be a _planning_ session!' Grimm sputtered. 'You expect us to just _go_ there and wing it? What's our strategy? What if Shego takes out Ron, like she _usually_ does? What if...'

This time Grimm whipped his hand aside before the Mystical Monkey's staff could hit him. 'Your plan is _get going_!' he said, waving his arms in the air. 'Your strategy is _win_! Then come back and we make pancakes.'

Kim almost chuckled at the look of dumbfounded exasperation on Grimm's face. After several days of having to deal with the Mystical Monkey on her own, it was nice to see someone _else_ being baffled by him.

'Then all is decided.' said Master Sensei with a bow to the Mystical Monkey. 'Those who are going to the lair must quickly prepare for departure. Those who are remaining may assist them.'

Grimm was sighing and shaking his head as the others left the table and started filing towards the door leading out.

* * *

Kim had gone ahead to the dorm room to start getting their gear ready. Ron was supposed to be there too, but as he went back towards the dorms, he was distracted by another look at the sun and clouds. He shook his head after a few minutes. _'Focus!'_ he thought. _'I'll have plenty of time to look at the sun after the mission...'_

As he continued on his way back, he heard someone clearing his throat. The sound had come from an ancient looking dojo in one of the further areas of the courtyard. He had seen it several times during his first stay at Yamanouchi, but as far as he could tell, no one had ever used it or been allowed in. But now as he looked at it, he saw the Mystical Monkey standing at the top of a short set of stairs which led into the dojo.

The Mystical Monkey was beckoning to him. Ron paused and looked around, but there was no one else in the courtyard. He looked back, and the monkey was still beckoning, looking more insistent. Ron pointed at himself in confusion, and mouthed the word _'Me?'._

The Mystical Monkey rolled his eyes and mouthed back. _'Yes you - duh.'_

Even more confused, Ron slowly approached the dojo while Rufus scampered ahead of him and eagerly dashed up the stairs. When he entered, the Mystical Monkey was standing in the center of the mats, looking at him expectantly. Ron approached warily, but when the Mystical Monkey gestured for him to sit down, Ron flinched. 'Aaaaah monkeys! Don't hurt me!' he wailed.

The Mystical Monkey rolled his eyes again. 'Grow_ up_, Chosen One!' he squeaked. 'I not gonna hurt you. I here to _help_ you. Sit.'

Ron sat down, and the Mystical Monkey sat opposite to him, looking him straight in the eye. 'Hear this now, Chosen One.' he said. 'Mystical Monkey power not _evil_. It can be _used_ for good, or for evil. But that depend on the kind of person using it.'

'So... it won't _make_ me evil?' said Ron. 'It's only evil for Monkey Fist because he wants to use it for evil?' The Mystical Monkey nodded. Ron sighed and rubbed his forehead. 'But if Mystical Monkey Power comes from _you_, can't you just... take it away from him or something?'

'That one of the things _you_ were chosen for.' said the Mystical Monkey. 'It not an accident you got power same day as Monkey Fist. When he first got power, you were right there to make sure someone _good_ have it too. But Mystical Monkey Power cannot fight against itself if destiny is to be fulfilled. Once Monkey Fist defeated, balance will be restored. _You_ are the Monkey Master, Chosen One.'

'Monkey _Master_?' said Ron. '_Me_?'

'You.' said the Mystical Monkey, nodding. 'And one day you will use Mystical Monkey Power for.... important _stuff_.' he ended cryptically.

'But then why doesn't it _work_ for me?' said Ron. 'It just kind of... comes and goes.'

'Because you not yet ready.' said the Mystical Monkey. 'You still acting all scardey-pants of monkeys - _and_ Mystical Monkey Power. Mystical Monkey Power will not fully embrace you, until you fully embrace _it_.'

'When will that be?' said Ron. 'I mean... I could really _use_ it for this coming battle.'

'The time is not yet.' said the Mystical Monkey, shaking his head. 'And time will _not _come... until the day when you are about to lose that which is most precious to you.'

Ron's head started buzzing. 'Lose?' he said. 'That which is.. most precious? You mean my game collection? My job?' The Mystical Monkey kept shaking his head. 'Uh... _Nacos_?' said Ron.

The Mystical Monkey paused, then shook his head again. 'No... though that would be pretty bad to lose. When the time comes, you will understand.'

'Aw come on!' said Ron. 'Can't you even give me a _hint_?'

'Ask Kim Possible,' said the Mystical Monkey with a laugh. 'She tell you all about how good I am with _hints_. But as to the coming fight - there no time for proper training. All I can give you are some _tips_....'

* * *

In the small dorm room that had been lent to Team Probable, Rhonda watched as Grimm impatiently stuffed some of their standard mission equipment into his backpack. 'This is _stupid_.' Grimm was muttering. '_Who's the super-wise monkey?_ What kind of an answer was that?'

'Grimm...' Rhonda said hesitantly, while Rueful curled in her lap.

But Grimm didn't seem to be listening. 'I've got half a mind for us to strike out on our own and do the job ourselves. At least then we can be sure it's done _right_...'

'Grimm...' she tried again.

'In fact, that idea sounds better every time I think it.' said Grimm. 'Now that you're back, we can probably slip off without much trouble. I've got some smoke bombs packed, I could set them...'

'_Grimm_!' Rhonda said, and she was surprised to hear her voice sound so forceful. And Grimm fell silent, looking at her in surprise. 'Grimm, do you remember what I said to you in the backyard - before you fought the giant golem?'

A faraway gleam stole across his eyes. 'So it wasn't a dream...' he said.

'No, it _happened_.' said Rhonda, leaning forward and taking his hand. 'You asked me why you should help Kim in the fight.'

'You said you didn't know,' said Grimm, 'You just had a feeling.'

'Well, I've got the same feeling now.' said Rhonda. She used her free hand to touch her upper arm where the bear paw birthmark was hidden under her shirt sleeve. 'I think the monkey guy is right. We should do what he says.'

Grimm didn't speak for several seconds. Finally he drew his hand across his forehead. 'This isn't any easier to accept than it was to go fight the golem.' he said.

'But it turned out OK.' said Rhonda. 'And I think it will again.'

Again, Grimm didn't answer right away. 'How do you _know_?' he said. 'We've got no proof for any of this. All we've got are feelings.'

She put her hand on his cheek. 'Feelings helped bring me back.' she said.

Grimm sighed, putting his own hand on her cheek. 'Sure, throw _that_ one at me.' he said. And they held each other in silence.

* * *

Kim had assembled two backpacks loaded with their normal mission equipment. One for her, and one for Ron. She was a bit resentful of the Mystical Monkey's strange instruction. Ron and _Grimm_ - attacking the lair by themselves? While she stayed at Yamanouchi with _Rhonda_? As she worked, she went through a whole list of possibilities in her mind. But each one simply seemed as if it were some kind of joke the Mystical Monkey was playing - keeping their 'normal' teams apart and teaming them with their opposites.

She was nearly finished by the time she realized that Ron was supposed to be there helping her out. A chill crept into her heart, realizing his absence. At once, she dashed outside, looking around the courtyard. But she couldn't see him. Feeling anxious and nearly afraid, she sped from building to building.

She was just about to start calling out for him when her eyes fell on Toshimiru's dojo, and at once she felt herself drawn towards it. As she started climbing the stairs, she heard voices within, including one that she knew was Ron's. Immediate relief took hold of her, as if tightening bands had been suddenly released. For a moment she thought he had disappeared again somehow, and the thought had been nearly _painful_.

As Kim reached the top of the stairs, she heard the Mystical Monkey's voice speaking. She peered around the edge of the doorway entrance and saw Ron standing in front of him. '...and don't forget to say _waaaaau'_!' said the Mystical Monkey. 'That very important - it the whole point of kung-fu! Say it with me! _Waaaaauuu!'_

Kim couldn't help smiling as Ron sank into an identical monkey-ish pose, one hand raised behind his head, the other palm out in front of him, and both he and the Mystical Monkey squealing while hopping on one foot.

_'Waauuuuuuuuu!!'_

'Now bring your hands in front of you like _this_!' said the Mystical Monkey, planting both his feet firm on the mat and holding his arms out with the palms extended and his fingers splayed out. Ron imitated the move, a little less confidently, but the posture was correct.

After repeating the process a couple more times, the Mystical Monkey signaled him to stop and then they bowed to each other. 'Now you ready to take on _anybody_!' he said. Ron only looked confused.

* * *

They were back in the courtyard. Master Sensei was there, along with Chief Sakituya, Team Probable and Monique. Grimm had his gear and looked ready to leave. Kim handed Ron his pack.

'It is time to depart.' said Sensei. 'Our helicopter pilots will return you to the airport and your jet. Good fortune to you - and always remember, when one has true friends, he is never alone.'

'You take care, now.' said Monique to Ron. 'After everything we went through to bring you back - you'd _better_ make it through this.' Ron smiled and nodded.

'Good luck.' said Kim, not sure what else to say. 'And be careful. Monkey Fist is a lot tougher now.'

'You got it!' said Ron enthusiastically, and Rufus poked his head out of Ron's hip pouch, looking comfortable and at home. 'I'll be in touch as soon as we trash the Jammer!'

'That's presuming a lot.' said Grimm. 'Even if we manage this, it'll be some time before we can contact you. It's not exactly a short flight from Japan to England. It takes a few hours, even for a supersonic jet.'

'Oooh, that OK.' said the Mystical Monkey, breaking in. 'It take a few hours to hike to Yamanouchi on foot from the base of the mountains. Timing should be _juuuuust_ about right. But you gotta go _now_.'

'What does hiking _up_ to Yamanouchi from the lowlands have to do with catching a flight _from_ Japan to England?' said Grimm, shaking his head.

'Never you mind!' said the Mystical Monkey, as if Grimm had asked a stupid question. 'What you still doing here? Go! Now! Leave! Why are you _not_ going?' he was waving wildly at Ron and Grimm now, flapping his robes and slapping at their knees with his hands.

Grimm took Rhonda's hand. 'I wouldn't agree to this crazy plan - for anyone but _you_.' he said in a low voice. Rhonda's eyes sparkled with tears as she nodded.

Kim held Ron's hand tightly. 'You've only been back a little while. I don't want you to go...' she said softly.

'Hey, don't worry KP.' said Ron. 'They couldn't keep us apart before, and they won't this time. I'll be back before you know it.'

Then they were leaning slowly towards each other, and Kim closed her eyes, anticipating the warmth of his lips against hers...

But they were pulled apart by a pair of hairy hands. 'Plenty of time for that later!' said the Mystical Monkey, now looking annoyed. 'You go _now_! Don't make me start throwing things at you!'

Kim leaned in and spoke softly into his ear. 'Watch your back, too.' she whispered. 'He's still _Grimm_.' Ron nodded, but was being ushered towards the rear courtyard by a pair of black uniformed Yamanouchi students. His hand left hers, and they kept looking at each other until he and Grimm disappeared through the courtyard gate.

Rhonda was standing near to Kim with Rueful on her shoulder, and with Monique and Enrique behind them. Rhonda was staring after Grimm's vanishing figure with a similar look on longing. They soon heard the whining of an engine, saw a cloud of dust billowing up behind the courtyard, and then the black silhouette of a helicopter slowly rising.

Kim and Rhonda stayed in the courtyard the entire time, watching as the copter moved off into the distance, vanishing into the mountain clouds...

* * *

Evening was fast approaching in Japan. At the base of the mountains, unseen by any, a deepening shade near a patch of trees began spreading outwards as if the trees were filled with black ink that had suddenly been spilled.

There was a thumping of many heavy footsteps. When the shadows receded, at least thirty figures emerged from the darkness. They stepped out onto the path which was the starting point for the arduous trek up to the hidden school sanctuary.

Monkey Fist paused and regarded the path which snaked up into the mountains. He would have preferred to arrive directly at the school, but Possible's meddling had prevented it. The base of the mountains was the closest workable target area which Drakken had plotted out, the nearest coordinates which the Ultra-Atmospheric Jammer could reach.

He would also have preferred to use the power of the Yono to rapidly make the ascent up the mountains and hasten his victory. But he wanted his golem slaves there with him when he began his attack, and the only way they could make the journey was on foot. But weariness was no obstacle - for himself, or his army.

He smirked, his petrified face crinkling into a wicked smile. These would be the last of Possible's irritating obstacles that needed to be overcome. After that - sweet revenge would be his. At a gesture, his golems fell in step behind him, and Monkey Fist began climbing the path to the Yamanouchi School.

_Coming Soon:_

_Chapter 32_

_It cannot be seen, cannot be felt.  
It cannot be heard, cannot be smelt.  
It lies behind stars, and under hills  
and empty holes it fills.  
It comes first and follows after,  
ends life - kills laughter..._


	33. Ch 32: Dark

A Friend In Darkness  
All Things Probable 3

A Kim Possible Fanfiction  
by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and its affiliates, etc. etc.

Chapter 32  
_Dark_

Ron Stoppable fidgeted in his seat on board a jet plane racing towards England. Rufus was poking his head around curiously from Ron's belt pouch. He was nervous about the coming battle, but just as nervous about the company he was going into battle with.

Grimm Probable was buckled into a seat across the aisle. Besides Ron and Grimm, there was no one on board except for the pilot. 'We'll be over the drop zone before long.' said Grimm, checking the straps of his backpack. 'If you've got any last minute last minute prepping you need to do, now's the time. I don't think it'll be any easier for us now than it was at the airport.'

Ron remembered. After they had left Yamanouchi and their copter had landed at the airport in Japan, it had certainly not been a leisurely take-off. With much of Japan in turmoil, and golems still running amok in the cities, the escape from the airport had been harrowing enough, apart from the prospects of the upcoming confrontation.

The jet pilot had been frantic when they got there. Even though Grimm had made sure the pilot had a Moo Goo gun in case he needed to defend the plane, he had taxied the jet into one of the hangars and hidden behind a stack of crates the whole time.

But they still needed to refuel the jet before they could leave for England, and they had been attacked by roaming golems twice while going about the task. Luckily, the Moo Goo Guy Gun had been sufficient to keep their attackers stuck in place while they helped themselves from the airport fuel storage tanks. Ron had protested taking the fuel without asking, until Grimm had reminded him that there _was_ no one to ask. The staff, technicians and personnel, like most of the rest of the population, were all on the run from Maze's golems.

Finding a clear exit runway had been another problem. Many of the runways were partially blocked off by abandoned planes, wrecked and burning cars, or other golems. Ron had clutched an airsick bag as he felt the jet weaving along a bumpy path while they moved here and there. At last, they had found a stretch of runway long enough to build up enough speed for their escape.

Once airborne, Grimm had gone into the lavatory and re-emerged wearing his battle-suit. Aside from that, he had stayed in his seat, scowling the whole time. That had been several hours ago. The flight itself had been uncomfortably quiet. Rufus shrugged up at Ron, and again, Ron tried to break the ice.

'So why are we bailing from the plane over a dozen miles _away_ from the lair?' he said.

'Because I don't want the jet anywhere near that Jammer.' said Grimm without looking at him. 'I don't know if they've got any systems in place for taking out approaching planes, but I'd rather not find out the hard way.'

'Then how are getting to the lair? I mean, usually Kim and I use parachutes, and it'll be a long walk if we land...'

'We're taking the _Ksikkihkíni_.' said Grimm, cutting across him.

'The... _bikini_?' said Ron. 'How will one of _those_ help?'

Grimm rolled his eyes. '_Ksikkihkíni_.' he said loudly. 'It's Blackfoot for 'eagle'. That's what my _bike_ is named - you know, the one that can fly?'

'Oh. Yeah.' said Ron. 'Well that's cool.'

'The bike can come in low enough to avoid detection, at least I hope so.' Grimm paused, sniffing and glaring at the seat in front of him. 'That's_ if _these coordinates are even legit.' he muttered. 'All we've got is an e-mail out of nowhere, with no way to verify it.'

'So... what do we do when we get there?' said Ron.

Grimm sneered. 'Don't ask me. Your monkey was the one who sent us here _without_ a plan. If he thought we should have more intel before we left, he blew off every chance to give it to us.'

Ron thought back to the 'tips' that the Mystical Monkey had given him in Toshimiru's dojo. But none of them gave him any enlightenment about what they should expect once they were at Monkey Fist's lair.

Grimm was silent again, tapping his foot against the seat in front of him. In truth, he _had_ gotten some more information before he left, from Chief Sakituya. The Indian Chief had drawn him aside before he had gone in to Rhonda's room to help her pack. But Sakituya's words hadn't comforted him much more than what the Mystical Monkey had said.

* * *

_'When you reach Maze's sanctuary, you must be careful not to destroy his machine immediately.' said Sakituya._

_ 'Why not?' asked Grimm. 'Isn't that the whole point of this raid?'_

_ 'Eventually.' said Chief Sakituya. 'But first - there is the matter of the damage they have already done. Maze's shadow medicine has animated the inanimate. And the work of Ipi'kowa must be broken if the world is to be restored to peace.'_

_ 'But how?' said Grimm. 'We already tried knocking out Maze. Even when he's out of commission, his golems can move and act without his direction. And even if we actually defeat Monkey Fist, the world's statues and monuments weren't created by the Yono's power of stone. They'll still be golems, even if the Yono's power is broken.'_

_ 'This is true.' said Sakituya. 'But those who were petrified by Maokiiwa need not concern you. Your concern must be the statues which were solely brought to life by Sskipoyiwa.'_

_ 'I don't understand.' said Grimm, shaking his head._

_ 'You do not need to.' said Sakituya gently. 'Simply know that this should guide your actions within the lair. If that helps you to focus your efforts, then it will be well enough.' He handed Grimm a leather shoulder pack. _

_ Grimm opened the flap, and saw that it was filled with the same kind of colored sand that he had used under the Great Bear Spirit's direction when he was fighting the Ubergolem. 'What's this for?' he asked._

_ Sakituya looked at him gravely. 'The price which the Great Bear asked of you is not yet fully paid.' he said. 'You must now play the part of Ipi'ka'pssiwa, and break the enchantment which has brought the statues of the world to life.'_

_ Grimm shook his head. 'I'm not a Blackfoot medicine man.' he said. 'If that's what needs doing, then you should come with us...'_

_'No.' said Sakituya firmly. 'Did you not swear to the Great Bear Spirit that you would do everything in your power to save Katasistsikoowa? This is part of the covenant you have made, Otaatoyiwa. You must be the one to fulfill it.'_

_ Grimm stood in silence for a moment. 'I said I wanted him to bring Rhonda back. That's done now.' he said. 'What if I refuse to play along any further?'_

_ Sakituya shook his head. 'You must decide for yourself, Otaatoyiwa.' he answered. 'I cannot constrain you or force you. I can only say that even though Katasistsikoowa is saved, unless you change with her, she will walk a different path from you.'_

_ Grimm felt a chill. Those were the same words the Great Bear had said to him in his vision. Sakituya hadn't been there - how could he have known them too? Was it a coincidence? He sighed. 'I'm not saying I agree to anything.' he said. 'But for the sake of argument, what would I do with this stuff when I get there?'_

_ Sakituya smiled._

* * *

'Why?'

Ron's voice suddenly broke Grimm out of his reverie. 'What?' he said.

'I said _why_?' Ron repeated. 'Why do you keep giving Kim such a hard time?'

Grimm was getting tired of rolling his eyes at Ron's stupid questions, but he did it again anyway. 'Aw, what's the matter?' he said jeeringly, 'Can't your tough crime-fighting girlfriend handle a little pressure?' he said.

'Yeah.' said Ron defiantly. 'But what's _your_ beef?'

Grimm looked away. 'I already told her.' he said. 'You and Kim _played_ us that time in Drakken's old lair. I'm just settling the score.'

'You said that about the thing with the Mega Synaptic Transducer.' said Ron. 'But that was months ago.'

Grimm winced. Ron was too honest and straightforward for his taste. His simple good-hearted nature had no appreciation or understanding for the subtlety of things like revenge or spite. 'She's competition.' he said, wondering how to phrase it so Ron would shut up. 'Her activities cut into my profits, so I do what I can to ace her out. It's nothing more than that.'

'You don't have to be such a jerk about it.' Ron said. 'That stuff you pulled was really harsh.'

'She can quit if it's too tough for her.' said Grimm.

Ron didn't answer. He knew exactly what Kim would say. And he remembered what his Dad had told him the time he had been freaking out over the mathematics of Kim's safety. _'Some things are worth the risk.'_ Grimm was still talking. 'If she can't take a bloody nose now and then, maybe she should crawl back home into bed.' Grimm said, turning away. 'It's not _safe_ out there, you know.'

'Well it would be a lot _safer_ if people like your bosses were in Cell Block D where they belong!' Ron retorted. 'Then maybe we wouldn't need to do stuff like, I donno, fly into a mountain lair to try and destroy an Ultra-Atmospheric Jammer?'

Grimm didn't really feel like arguing that point, so he switched to deflection. 'Speaking of which, we'd better work out a game plan.' he said. 'No matter what your monkey says, I want some kind of strategy for when we're there...'

* * *

Dr. Drakken was inside the Jammer, high up in the Immersion Chamber. He entered coordinates and data into a display readout built into one of the armature supports for the machine. Maze was there, scowling impatiently. At last, Drakken stepped back. 'That should do it.' he said. 'I've set the screen to display the coordinates of each city that Monkey Fist hit before he stepped out. They'll scroll in sequential order by tapping the up and down arrow keys beneath the keypad. The Jammer is at full power, and you can start any time....'

'Now.' said Maze. 'Each city that falls to my rule weakens my enemies.'

'Yes yes, we're all in a hurry to weaken our enemies.' said Drakken, shrugging his shoulders. 'So... are you set for the time being? Everything peachy? You'll be hitting these cities for a while, right?'

'Yes.' said Maze, stepping into the enclosure and lowering the Immersion Helmet into place.

Drakken was backing towards the lift as he spoke. 'Ah well then, if you don't need anything, I'll be in the back cavern with Shego getting... rid of those empty crates.'

'Yes.' said Maze, distracted. He was trying to muster his concentration; to focus his will through the Immersion Helmet and into the Jammer in preparation for hitting his next target. And he found Drakken's voice even more grating than normal.

'Was that 'yes' you _don't_ need anything, or 'yes' you _do_ need something...?'

'Just _go_.' he said irritably, his vision blocked by the interior of the helmet. He was relieved to hear the lift door slide shut a few seconds later. He chanted softly, and felt the vast areas across the world where his influence could reach spring open to his mind. He felt the shadows bending to his will, and turned his powers towards the next city on his list. The crows for dozens of miles around his target heeded the call and took wing, flying to where hundreds of thousands of petrified people were waiting to be marked and join his army....

_**Part II: The Lair**_

The rear cargo hatch of the jet swung open, and Ron looked out with a gulp at the green landscape far below as it rolled past his view. They were several hundred feet up, much lower than he and Kim had ever been when using their chutes. Grimm was on the bike, his helmet on. Ron was trying to wrestle Rhonda's helmet onto his head. It wasn't his size, and the foam padding was scraping against his face. He buckled himself behind Grimm and triple-checked to make sure Rufus was secure in his hip pouch.

Grimm was talking to the pilot on the bike's communicator. 'Once we're clear, go to Heathrow and wait for us.' he said. 'Do whatever you can to lay low and protect the plane. Depending on how this goes, we may need a fast exit.'

'Roger.' came the voice of the pilot, slightly scratchy with static. 'We'll be over the drop zone in five... four...'

'Stay gripped.' Grimm muttered to Ron. The bike turbines began emitting a mechanical whining sound.

'..two... one... _go_!'

The straps holding down the _Ksikkihkíni _whipped loose and they shot out of the plane. Despite all of his experience with plane drops, Ron found there was a distinct difference from a free-fall with a chute, and a free-fall while strapped to a motorbike. A glance backward showed him the jet was already a small dot shrinking in the distance.

The ground beneath them was zooming up far too quickly for his liking. He saw roads, woods, hills and checkered patches of green like farm fields shuddering below. Ron squealed his usual free-falling squeal before they leveled out about a hundred feet from the ground and soared straight and level.

'Dude - pipe down and stop _hugging_ me!' Grimm barked.  
'I'm not _hugging _you _- _I'm _holding_ you!'  
'That sounds even worse!'  
'Well what am I supposed to say?'  
'I don't.... look, just ease off!'

Ron relaxed his grip a bit, much to Grimm's relief. _'Maybe I should get a car.'_ he thought. _'This just gets too weird with other passengers.'_ But it was all the more uncomfortable with Ron because he was so similar to Rhonda in his manner of behavior. Rhonda also used to squeal at every free-fall, and not let go of him until they landed. He'd never minded it with Rhonda - it was actually _fun_ having her hold him more tightly on the bike. But with another_ guy _- he couldn't help remembering what Enrique had said. '_No es macho_.'

They glided over the landscape, gradually dipping lower until they were barely thirty feet above the ground. 'Uh, you said you wanted to go in with a plan.' said Ron. 'Did we actually get around to discussing one?'

Grimm sighed. He had decided what _his_ plan would be, but to get a shot at making it happen, he would need stealth. He had to find a way to reach his goal without anyone knowing what he was up to. In the time it took to get to the airport from Yamanouchi and onto the plane, Ron had slipped, stumbled, squealed or fallen every few minutes. So much so that Grimm had considered starting a spreadsheet to see if he could calculate exactly when the next slip-up would occur.

And that would be a disaster on this mission. Ron seemed to habitually make as much noise as an elephant strapped with pots and pans, even when he was _trying _to be stealthy. But Grimm needed to make his way through the lair without being noticed. And the minute Ron moved, he'd probably have Maze and the entire gang on him...

And the lights went on in Grimm's mind. 'All right,' he said, picking his words carefully. 'Here's the plan. From all the intel we gathered before, they built a smaller mini-Jammer first to see if they could use it to broadcast their enchantments by satellite. Once they proved it could work, they brought Dr. Drakken on board to make a full-size Jammer. That means there's probably _two_ Jammers in the lair. A big one, and a smaller one. We have to take them both out. I'll handle the big one - it should be easy to spot. You take out the smaller one. Got it?'

'Absolutely!' he said. 'When it comes to breaking mad scientist doomsday machines, no one tops the Ron-man!'

'Well, we have to do it quiet-like.' said Grimm. 'We don't know how many golems they have guarding the place. If anyone spots us, they'll all come running.'

'Oh yeah.' said Ron. 'Uh, that would be a _bad _thing, right?'

'Yes, having an army of indestructible rock monsters all trying to pound you into jelly would land squarely in the _bad things_ category.'

'I get it, I get it!' said Ron.

'So whatever you do,' said Grimm pointedly. 'Do _not_ let anyone see or hear you. You got that? _Be absolutely and totally silent_.'

'Then don't breathe too deep, 'cause I'm gonna be like a puff of smoke!' Ron said, and his hand smacked loudly against his helmet as he saluted.

_'Yeah, that ought to distract them.'_ Grimm thought. Then he thought about Rhonda and shook his head. 'Just in case they _do_ spot us, you can run, right?'

'Well _duh_.' said Ron.

'If that happens, just do your best to stay ahead of them.' he said. 'Beyond that, we can't work things out any further until we get to the lair.'

A red light on the dashboard of the bike suddenly began blinking and there was a loud beeping. 'That doesn't sound good!' said Ron. 'What is it?'

'The lair.' said Grimm.

* * *

A light on the computer console inside the lair blinked red and beeped. Drakken hastily turned off the computer speakers, silencing everything except for the sounds of the Jammer and the power generator. He sneaked a quick look at the monitors linked to the exterior surveillance cameras and saw an approaching dot in the distance. He turned and looked around the lair, using only his eyes and trying not to turn his neck too much.

The golems who had remained behind, about forty of them, were still and quiet. With the construction finished, they had mostly been sent to guard duty, and were dotting the vast cavern here and there. Drakken wiped his forehead in relief, smoothing away a layer of nervous sweat. None of the golems seemed to be coming at him, which meant they must not have noticed.

Biting his lip, he turned off the monitor screens and stood up from the desk, clearing his throat loudly. 'You statue people!' he called out. 'I'm going to the back to clear away a few things! Why don't you _all_ come and lend a hand?'

Several seconds passed. None of the golems responded. 'Nnnn! Fine!' Drakken spat. 'Shego!' he called out, and Shego was there a moment later. '_You_ come with me and help out!' Shego said nothing, but followed him as he walked towards the rear caverns. 'We'll be pretty far in and may not be out for a while...' he said loudly. 'Yessir - got a _lot _of crates to get rid of... way _in the back_.' Then they passed through the opening that led out of the main chamber and were swallowed up in the shadows.

* * *

Even Ron, by sight alone, could tell which mountain was the lair. All the other surrounding peaks, hills and moors were green with trees, grasses and other vegetation, and had dark patches where rock and stone poked through. But one mountain had a flattened top, and a faint light was funneling upwards from the summit. And barely visible, they saw the spiked and gleaming points of something metallic jutting slightly above the crater.

Grimm had landed the _Ksikkihkíni _some distance away from the mountain itself, and insisted they go in on foot. They had hiked steadily, flitting from cover to cover until the mountain filled all their vision. They felt vibrations beneath their feet, as if they were approaching a restless volcano.

Grimm motioned Ron to stop, and darted behind a copse of gorse bushes on the slopes. 'This is it.' he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

'Ya _think_?' said Ron. 'Like the glowey stuff wasn't a giveaway? I'm surprised no one _else_ found them...'

'Gotta hand it to them, they picked a good spot.' said Grimm, pushing aside leaves and twigs. About thirty yards from where they crouched hidden, Ron saw the start of a path. And following the path with his eyes, he saw it led back and forth, ascending up the mountain. One hundred feet up, nearly hidden by overhanging bushes, he saw the wide entrance of what looked like a cave.

'_Good_ spot?' said Ron. 'There's not a Bueno Nacho within fifty miles! This isn't good!'

Grimm winced, and finally decided that Kim was to be admired - for somehow putting up with Ron in a mission setting. 'It's isolated enough that the Jammer still can't be spotted except from the air.' he said. 'From a distance, the lights blend in with the light pollution from distant cities. The tremors must be vibrations from the generator. But only hikers would get close enough to feel it - the nearest town is at least five miles away.'

'So what are we waiting for?' Ron said, starting to push through the bushes. 'Let's climb up, find a ventilation duct and...'

Grimm hauled him back and pushed him down. 'Not on the _path_, doofus!' he hissed. 'It's probably wired! We go up a stone's throw _away_ from the path!'

'Yeah.. makes sense I guess.'

But some time later, fighting his way up the slopes _without_ a path, Ron decided it didn't really make sense at all. They had to scramble on their hands and knees in many steep places, getting scratched and scraped by thick bushes and rough rocks.

At last, Grimm peered around a tumble of weathered rocks covered with moss and lichen, and saw a wide space which had been beaten smoother with the coming and going of heavy feet. Around the bend was the entrance of the cave.

'Send him in.' Grimm whispered, flattening himself against the mountainside as best he could.

Ron knelt down and opened his hip pouch. 'OK Rufus, you're on!' he said. Rufus hopped out and gave Ron a salute. Then he scurried off rapidly, reaching the entrance area and turning around the bend. He was out of sight for a few minutes before he darted back into view, giving Ron a thumbs-up sign.

'All right - no guards at the front door!' Ron smiled, and he started forward.

Grimm followed after him cautiously. 'Don't drop your guard.' he said. 'And remember, once we're inside, you're on your own.'

But Ron didn't seem to be listening. He was edging towards the dark entrance of the cave. Grimm kept his finger near the belt control which would activate the stealth technology on his battle-suit.

The cave mouth yawned wide around them as they entered, and Ron felt the slightly colder air washing around him. Soon they were enveloped in darkness and Ron stopped, letting his eyes adjust. They crept forward again, letting Rufus scout ahead. A rumbling, mechanical noise was growing steadily louder as they went on. Then at last Rufus motioned them to stop, and they saw a light ahead of them which was not daylight.

They leaned their heads around the rim of the widening tunnel, and saw a vast cavern spreading out before them. It was huge, with wires leading up the walls to several light fixtures mounted in the high roof. The distant edges of the cavern were littered with crates and other miscellaneous equipment. About twenty yards away, they saw a few stone tables, fitted with banks of computers and connected wires.

But dominating the scene was something that Ron recognized, having seen it before in one of Professor Dementor's lairs. A towering metal construct that stretched up to the roof of the cavern. It was surrounded by railways and gantries, with an elevator lift attached to the superstructure. The cavern roof had a gigantic sliding metal hatchway, which was open. The pale sky above was mostly blocked out by the top of the machine, which had several spiked protrusions raised towards the sky like a thorny robotic finger. Thick cables connected the machine to a large power generator, which rumbled and growled, it's massive turbines spinning rapidly.

'Hey...' Ron whispered, '... that thing looks just like...'

Grimm quickly covered Ron's mouth with a gloved hand, motioning him to be quiet. He pointed slowly into the cavern, indicating several different spots. And then Ron saw the golems. He had sort of skipped over them because of the massive Ultra-Atmospheric Jammer, but following Grimm's lead, he now spotted dozens of figures, standing still and silent around the edge of the cavern, mixed in among the crates and other parts lying around. Some of them looked human, with clothing and features that would have been considered intricately carved, if they had actually been statues. But Grimm knew they were Maze's petrified and enslaved victims. There were other golems though, which were rough and lumpy - misshapen stones carved into vaguely human forms.

None of them appeared to be looking towards the cave entrance. All of them were oriented towards the table, the generator, or the Jammer. _'They've been ordered to protect the machines...' _Grimm thought. He looked around intensely, but he couldn't see Maze, Monkey Fist, Drakken, or even Shegolem.

'I'm heading for the big one.' Grimm whispered. 'Find the mini-Jammer, and don't forget - _be silent!'_ Then he activated his stealth mode and darted into the cavern.

Rufus looked questioningly up at Ron. 'Mmm-hmm?' he squeaked.

Ron grinned. 'Not to worry, Rufus!' he said softly. 'You're forgetting we spent a week at Yamanouchi - so I don't need a battle suit to be.... _invisible!_'

Rufus put a paw over his eyes and shook his head as Ron picked up a rock, held it in front of his face, and started slinking into the cavern with exaggerated ninja postures.

* * *

Maze was relishing the heady thrill of control which he felt while using the Jammer, and wondering what the total number of new slaves would reach once Monkey Fist returned to petrify more cities. Even if some parts of the United States could not be turned to stone outright, they would soon be overwhelmed with sheer numbers.

He indulged in a long-nurtured fantasy in which he imagined the foolish leaders in Washington DC, defeated and on their knees, giving into his demands. And he envisioned himself, returning to the remnants of the Blackfoot tribe as the hero who had reclaimed their land and rights to power. Not much longer, perhaps only another day or two, and those dreams would become real.

But the pleasant images were interrupted by a loud clattering noise that seemed to come from somewhere outside the Jammer. He gritted his teeth as the sound died away, leaving only the soft thrumming pulse of the Jammer. He started concentrating again when the clattering noise repeated, even louder and more prolonged. _'Clumsy blue fool!'_ he thought angrily. He removed the helmet and unbuckled the gauntlets, stepping out of the Immersion Chamber and picking up his staff. His patience with Drakken was running out. Now that the Jammer was built and working, he was looking forward to getting rid of him, either by throwing him out or having Monkey Fist turn him to stone and silence him permanently. He stormed over to the lift entrance and started down to the cavern floor.

Once the lift was half-way down, a shimmering distortion slipped over the railway leading into the Immersion Chamber from the upper gantries. Grimm Probable deactivated his stealth mode and approached the machine, removing a bag of colored sand from his belt...

_**Part III: Ronneybrook**_

Ron Stoppable was scrabbling back up to his feet. _'A bucket!'_ He thought. _'They actually had a bucket here - and I tripped over it - twice! Man, what is wrong with me?'_ As he dusted off his knees, he heard a steady thumping from all around, the sound of many approaching footsteps. The golems who had been standing guard were closing in. He backed up towards a stone table which held the computers and keyboards.

Ron cleared his throat in a sheepish laugh. 'Hey guys,' he said. 'Is this the address for the next Rolling Stones concert?'

None of the golems answered. They formed a half circle around him and slowly stumped nearer.

'Woah - tough crowd.' Ron muttered. '_Really_ tough!'

The golems stopped as a low, angry voice shouted from several yards away. 'Who dares trespass in my domain?'

Ron turned. Standing next to the entrance of an elevator lift was a man in a brown cloak and poncho, holding a staff in his hand. As his eyes fell on Ron, an expression of amazed bewilderment spread across his face. '_You..._'he breathed. '_Ipi'sskinao'siwa!_'

'Ippy-sisky..._whoozis_?' said Ron, hopping up onto the table and still backing away from the golems. 'Doesn't anyone just use _regular _names around here?'

'How can this be?' Maze hissed. 'I banished you to the world of spirits! There is no way you can possibly have returned!'

'Really?' said Ron, stumbling over computer monitors and keyboards, 'Uh... maybe your powers have an expiration date...'

'But if you have returned, that means...' And Maze's face contracted in sudden rage. '_She_ has returned as well!'

'Who - Rhonda?' said Ron. 'Yeah, we kind of came back on the same bus.'

'Where is she?' Maze snarled. 'I will make certain this time that she shares your fate!'

'Uh... dude I can't really _talk_ much right now - your rock guys are crowding my personal space and it's kinda off-putting...'

Maze ground his teeth. 'Very well then.' he said quietly. 'Perhaps your spirit will be more compliant once your body has been broken! Slaves - _destroy Ipi'sskinao'siwa!'_

* * *

Grimm heard Ron's high-pitched wailing even from the Immersion Chamber high above. He could also tell the voice was moving, circling around the Jammer, meaning that Ron was running.

_'Just keep away from them a little longer,_' he thought, laying out the last trails of sand from his bag. The metallic enclosure was now surrounded by sigils painted on the metal steel floor, and Grimm stepped gingerly into the machine. He turned his attention to a pair of keypads set on armatures near the Immersion Gauntlets.

On one of his wrists he had pinned a scrap of paper with some of Jade's notes, listing Dementor's basic instructions on how to run the Jammer. On the other wrist, he had a note scribbled with words written in Blackfoot. He took a deep breath, and then started working the keypads. He worried for a moment, wondering if Drakken had made any alterations to the controls. But he was relieved as he heard the Jammer revving up to full power. Quickly, he lowered the helmet onto his head, then slipped his hands into the gauntlets.

Wondering if this would possibly work, he began to chant, concentrating and trying to focus his will into the helmet.

_ Omahkkiaayowa,  
Nitsiinihkatsimatsiiwa_

_ Omahkkiaayowa,  
Nitsiinihkatsimatsiiwa..._

* * *

Ron was running around the lair with the golems plodding after him. He was running so fast that soon he had caught up and was directly _behind_ the pursuing statues. 'Oops.' he said, as they paused and stared at each other. Then he turned around and ran screaming in the other direction.

Maze stood watching the proceedings incredulously. Despite the fact that Ron was constantly squealing at the top of his lungs, he was still running full speed, apparently without any shortness of breath. _'Perhaps he should be named 'Needs No Air_.' he thought.

It was a frustrating chase from his perspective. The golems were simply too slow to keep up with Ron, and Ron didn't seem to be getting tired. The pursuit seemed endless, and Maze watched like a tennis spectator, glaring at the proceedings as Ron and the golems moved back and forth and around the Jammer in a perpetual cycle that went on for several minutes.

At last they seemed to have him cornered as Ron scrambled up a scaffolding crane like a kitten up a tree. The golems began pulling and heaving at the base as Ron reached the top. The lurching motions pitched him loose, and with a prolonged wail he fell.

Maze grinned with triumph, but it was short-lived. Ron caught hold of the hook and chain at the end of the crane boom as he fell. The boom swung around in a wide arc, sending Ron wheeling around the cavern until the boom smashed into a tower of crates.

'Woops - sorry!' Ron yelled, crawling up on top of the boom. Empty wooden boxes rained down, smashing on top of golems, until a number of them were buried. The other golems were still pulling at the base of the crane, and Ron fell backwards onto the boom as it started swinging the other direction.

Ron felt his stomach churning at the sudden changes in g-force and the sight of the lair spinning around beneath him. 'Oh man!' he said. 'I'm glad I didn't have any hot dogs on the plane...!'

Rufus was leaning out of his hip pouch, looking green. 'Mmm-hmm! Queasy!' he squeaked.

But Ron was able to clearly register one sight. The crane boom was speeding swiftly on course to smash fully into the cavern wall. Fighting against the nausea, he pulled himself along the length of the boom until he was at the pivot point. There was a loud crash, and the entire crane shook violently. He felt himself falling loose again, and reached out with his hands, trying to grab anything solid.

He wound up with both arms wrapped around one of the crane support struts, and slid down like a fireman on a pole. Grateful for his gloves, he tightened his grip, feeling his clothing squeal against the smooth metal until he came to a stop. Opening one eye, he saw the cavern floor just a foot or two beneath him.

'We made it!' he shouted, dropping to the floor. 'Ron one - gravity _zero_!' He laughed, until he turned around and saw he was in the middle of the golems who had been at the base of the crane. 'Oh _crud_.'

'Finish him!' Maze crowed from across the cavern. But then his mouth fell open as he saw the boom for the crane snap loose. It fell twenty feet, landing squarely on top of the golems. They were flattened against the cavern floor with the twisted metal of the crane entangled around them. When the dust cleared, Ron was still standing, covering his head and cringing against the cavern wall.

He looked around at the wreckage, then sheepishly looked at Maze. 'Uh, I want it on record,' he said. '_Your_ guys did that, not me!'

Maze shook his head in disbelief. How could one pale-faced boy cause so much havoc? 'Get up!' he shouted. 'After him!!'

Ron darted through the midst of the crane wreckage and the fallen crates as golem arms and limbs pushed or smashed their way through the debris. _'Why couldn't I have come here with Kim?'_ he thought. _'She usually takes out the bad guy by now! Where's Grimm?'_

Maze's attention was focused on Ron, and as such, he did not notice as the main computer bank at the base of the Jammer flicked on. It was the display which showed the globe and it's surrounding satellites, which were all suddenly blinking, changing from yellow to white...

* * *

_Omahkkiaayowa,  
Nitsiinihkatsimatsiiwa..._

Grimm kept chanting, though nothing seemed to be happening. All he could see was the interior of the Immersion Helmet, and all he could hear was the pulsing of the Jammer, along with Ron's faint squeals from below.

_'Come on, Great Bear!'_ he thought, abandoning his chant as he had before fighting the Ubergolem. _'I was ordered here - Sakituya said this was part of my price! I'm here for Rhonda's sake, so if there's something else you need from me, take it!'_

But again, nothing seemed to happen.

Grimm sighed, gripping the handles inside the gauntlets hard. _'Please?'_ he tried, desperately.

And he suddenly _felt_ the light - all the light across the globe, light which the shadows fled from. Grimm paused for a moment in awe of the sensation he felt as his will melted into the light. It didn't feel as if he were bending the light to his will - rather it felt as if the light was _using_ his will to bend itself. The light reached out, and touched the rampaging golems across the globe...

* * *

_ And from one side of the world to the other, golems suddenly halted. Animated statues stopped their attacks. Egyptian statues returned to their ancient stands, took their places and went still. The sphinx settled back into its sandy foundation, raising its mysterious head and returning to its silent vigil._

_ The Statue of Liberty heaved itself back onto Ellis Island, stood on her dais and raised her torch before falling back into lifelessness. Across Europe, Asia, Africa and Russia, monument statues all stopped, returned to their places and went still, as if nothing had ever happened._

_ Crows which had been laboring to scratch the emet symbols onto petrified victims took flight and scattered. The will that had gathered them and guided them was suddenly gone, and they fled from the light to return to their forests and nests._

_ In Washington DC, Mr. Probable was still aiding in the defense of the city. But it was obvious, even to the troops, that they were only delaying the enemy. They had exhausted their Moo Goo guns, but there were still thousands of golems marching into the city from all around. The soldiers' RPGs and other weapons could do little more than knock them down and slow their advance, but they couldn't stop them. Slowly, but gradually, the golems were entering the city._

_ Mr. Probable's radio man had one earphone pushed against the side of his head while the surrounding soldiers fired another volley of shells. They were trying to disrupt the advance of a horde of golems, which were marching up a freeway towards the city._

_ The soldiers began a sudden cheering when they saw that some of the golems had fallen still, and were not getting back up to rejoin the attack. Mr. Probable stared, wondering what might have happened - their latest onslaught hadn't been any more powerful than the previous. But as he looked around with his binoculars, he could plainly tell that a number of golems were now stiff and motionless._

_ 'Getting reports from the north and east flanks, sir!' the radio man shouted above the din. 'We've got enemy troops going down all around the city - and the statues in the containment foam have stopped moving!'_

_ Mr. Probable nodded. One of the more enthusiastic soldiers shouted towards him from across the way. 'We got 'em on the run, sir! Should we drive 'em back?'_

_ 'Use your eyes, soldier!' Mr. Probable shouted. 'We're not out of the woods yet.'_

_ Hundreds of golems were still moving, re-gathering and continuing their relentless advance. Leaving behind the others, the resumed their march. 'Maintain your firing lines and range from targets!' Mr. Probable bellowed. 'There's fewer enough now that we might be able to keep them out of the city, but do not attempt to engage in melee combat!'_

_ The soldier nodded and returned to his squad, who were reloading their RPG launchers for another volley. But they were running out of ammo for those as well, and the tanks were also running low on shells. The battle resumed, and Mr. Probable tapped his fingers on his binoculars. 'That's my boy.' he thought. 'Whatever you're doing, keep it up...'_

_**Part III: Darkness Falls**_

Ron was backed into a corner, with Maze's golems closing in. It might have been the adrenaline rush, fueled by so much running, but he felt a giddy defiance of the odds that he often felt when things seemed hopeless. 'You think you guys scare me?' he yelled. 'I've faced down bruisers before - and I've got the same message for you that I had for them! Eat _knuckle_!'

He went into his best kung-fu stance, let out a yodeling shout, and lashed out with a hard strike into the gut of the lead golem.

'Ow!' he squealed, pain exploding in his hand. He drew back his arm, shaking it hard. 'It hurt when I gave that message all those other times too....' He flinched, hiding his eyes and expecting a return punch, but the Ultra Atmospheric Jammer suddenly thrummed loudly.

Both Ron and Maze turned and looked up, distracted by the Jammer. It glowed piercingly bright in the dark cavern, and the generator was whining when a wave of light bubbled out from the machine, traveling through the lair like a physical thing. Ron felt it going through him, and Maze was shielding his eyes.

Then the light faded. Shadows rose again in the cavern. Both the Jammer and the generator seemed to die down, the tumultuous noises ebbing out.

Ron looked back down again, but the lead golem hadn't moved. It remained in front of him with both arms stretched out to seize him, but it remained frozen in that pose.

'What are you waiting for?' Maze shouted. 'Take him!'

But only about half of the golems moved to obey. Others remained still, standing where they had been when the light had flooded the lair. Seeing an opening, Ron dashed around the motionless statues, dodged around the approaching ones, and made his way to an open space, breaking back into a run.

Maze felt bafflement added to his frustration as the ridiculous chase resumed. The golems which were still active were the ones who had been petrified by Monkey Fist and later animated. The golems he had carved and crafted from the stones in the cavern were all frozen. That strange light from the Jammer had done something to them...

As Ron ran screaming past him with the remaining golems lumbering in pursuit, Maze's eyes narrowed. 'Enough of this,' he muttered. He began tapping the small drum hanging from his hip, and chanting in a low voice.

_ Sipimottakiksi,  
Nikaahtomaana nimaataakaniiwa..._

After a few seconds of running and dodging, Ron was starting to feel more confident and was screaming less. As tough as these guys were, they just weren't very fast. And they were not spreading out to cut him off, they remained together in a disorderly mass as they chased after him and Rufus. Keeping ahead of them was a snap compared to evading football players on the field.

_'Looks like the mad running away skills are still good!' _he thought. He saw a dark opening that looked like a passage, and started dashing towards it. _'Let's try a change of scenery!'_

But suddenly he stopped short, and felt like he had run straight into a solid wall. He fell backwards and landed gracelessly on his backside. Rubbing his smarting nose, he looked up but he could see no wall, or anything that might have blocked him - there was only a veil of shadows that stretched out before him.

He felt a chill fear, for the rippling shadows looked very similar to the veils of darkness which he had spent a month enduring. For a terrifying moment, he thought Maze had somehow opened another portal that would cast him back into the spirit world - this time totally alone. He crab walked backwards until he felt another collision, this time against his back, and against something much more solid.

Powerful hands seized him, and he found himself being hauled up and frog-marched until he was standing right in front of Maze, who stood glowering over him, his dark eyes gleaming. 'I will ask you only once,' he said, his voice low and dangerous, 'How did you find me? How did you come to be here?'

Before Ron could speak, they heard a thumping noise on the cavern floor. Maze looked and saw several small metallic spheres, each about the size of a baseball, lying at the feet of several of his golems. He drew back with a gasp as the spheres exploded with loudpopping sounds. And globes of expanding white foam grew rapidly into existence. The nearby golems were engulfed, their heads poking above the rising blooms.

Ron took advantage of Maze's distraction, wrenching his arms free from the golem's fingers and scrabbling away from the foam.

'_I_ brought him.' came a voice. Maze looked up, and Grimm was perched on a railway above them. His face was drenched with sweat and he was breathing hard, but he was smiling as he looked down at Maze.

Maze gritted his teeth. '_Otaatoyiwa_...' he growled. 'I should have known.'

Grimm threw down more of the Moo Goo grenades that Jade had prepared. Ron shouted and ran off again, while Maze gestured quickly. Several golems moved forward, standing between Grimm and Maze. They were caught as the Moo Goo grenades went off, and were soon flailing and struggling within muffin-like semi-spheres of white foam.

Soon the remaining golems were imprisoned, or stuck fast to the ground. Grimm leaped down to help Ron, who had his leg caught by one of the Moo Goo grenades. He was pulling hard, but the foam was nearly at his hip by the time Grimm reached him.

'Hold still!' Grimm shouted, taking an aerosol spray flask out of his hip pouch. 'Jade gave me some solvent, just in case...' He sprayed the Moo Goo where it enveloped Ron's leg, and the foam began dissolving at once, like bubbles off the top of a soda drink. Ron's leg pulled out with a squelching sound, and he fell backwards with a yelp onto the cavern floor.

They backed away, and Ron was relieved to see that no golems were coming after them. All of them were trapped in Moo Goo. 'Now there's just Maze.' said Grimm, smirking. 'He shouldn't be a problem unless....'

Wild laughter rose behind them, and they turned to see Maze standing in a metallic harness with his hands encased in a pair of Immersion Gauntlets. The machine was humming, and the shadow shaman glared at them with a wicked smile.

'...unless you _didn't_ destroy the mini-Jammer.' Grimm winced, looking angrily at Ron.

Ron sputtered. 'I didn't have a chance to find it - I was being chased by an _army_! What were you doing anyway?'  
'Didn't have a chance..?' Grimm shot back, 'What was all that racket? I thought you'd wrecked _something_..!'  
'I was trying to get away from the statues!'  
'You were supposed to be good at wrecking equipment!'  
'I am - look at that crane!'  
'We didn't _need_ the crane destroyed...'

_'Silence!!'_

They both snapped their focus back on Maze. The mini-Jammer was humming even louder, and surrounding both the machine and it's occupant was a swirling, rippling wave of darkness, as black as the Moo Goo was white. The shadows of the cavern were pooling around Maze like a mass of living tar, rising above his knees.

'I wish to enjoy the sight of your defeat,' Maze laughed, pushing back the Immersion Helmet. 'But I do not wish to hear you speak - except to beg for mercy!'

Grimm activated his stealth mode and darted to the side, making towards the cavern edge. As he ran, he thought about the EMP grenade in his backpack. _'If I can shut down the generator...'_ he thought. But he heard Maze shouting.

'You think you can hide from me in the shadows, _Otaatoyiwa_? The shadows are my servants!'

Grimm felt himself being pushed violently back into the midst of the cavern, landing with a thud next to Ron. He tried to run again, but bumped against a solid wall of darkness. Like at Basalton, he was encased in a dome of shadow, and he pounded against it in frustration.

'It was foolish of you to try and stop me_!_' Maze laughed, feeling the Jammer's power. 'Especially here, where my powers are strongest! And as for you...' He turned to Ron, who was trying to lift the shadows surrounding Grimm by digging his fingers underneath them. '...I believe that _Otaatoyiwa_ would find it most humiliating if _you_ were the one who delivers the final blow!'

Maze concentrated, and the shadows which covered the walls of the lair shot out like strangling tentacles, latching onto Ron. He closed his eyes, letting his will sink into the shadows, and he opened them again, expecting to be looking out from Ron's eyes.

But Ron was still standing in front of him, swatting at his arms as the shadows curled around him. 'Dude!' he said. 'Get this stuff off me!'

Maze stood in astonishment. 'What is this?' he hissed. 'No one can resist my shadow possession!' He concentrated again, more fiercely. But again, his awareness remained in his own body, and Ron seemed unaffected. He gripped the gauntlets, baffled. His shadows had never _failed_ him. The shadow possession used the darkness - the shadows - in the hearts of other persons as a bridge to allow him to take control of their bodies. There was only one reason why it might not work, and the realization of it struck him like a physical blow. 'There... _is no_ darkness in your heart!'

Ron was shrugging off the enveloping shadows. 'Thanks - I guess.' he said.

'Impossible!' Maze spat. 'You are a pale-face - _all_ pale-faces have darkness in their hearts!'

'Maybe you've been hanging out with the wrong ones.' said Ron, now moving forward through the shadows which curled around him like low-hanging black smoke.

Maze wasn't _afraid_ of Ron - after all, he was little more than a child. But he didn't know if this boy had any other tricks. He saw no reason to risk letting this whelp get any closer to him, not while he still had other uses for his shadow medicine. The shadows around him reformed, covering him like a dome as he chanted.

_ Sipimottakiksi,  
Nikaahtomaana nimaataakaniiwa!_

'There's a lot of syllables in there...' said Ron, who reached out, but his hand stopped short against the shadow barrier. Ron paused, then pushed against the invisible wall with both hands. He tried hitting it a few times, but was unable to get through.

Maze chanted again, and the barrier expanded to surround Ron. Maze's face narrowed into a malicious scowl. 'I have always wondered if I could use my shadow barriers to _crush_ a trapped enemy.' he sneered. 'But I've never had the opportunity to try it... until now.'

Ron felt himself being pulled back, and the bubble surrounding him begin to shrink. It was contracting, and Ron strained hard, bracing his hands above him. Grimm was also bracing himself, looking as if he were struggling under a heavy weight. 'Should have... taken... _mime_ class!' Ron grunted.

Grimm shuddered as he fell to his knees. His eyes were closed and Ron heard him muttering under his breath.

_ Omahkkiaayowa,  
Nitsiinihkatsimatsiiwa..!_

But Maze was laughing. 'The Great Bear will not save you this time!' he shouted. 'Not without his 'Chosen One' present to act for him! I am sure _Maokiiwa_ will not begrudge me being the one who destroys you.' he said. 'Struggle all you like - _Katasistsikoowa_ was the only one who ever broke through my shadows!'

Ron felt the shadow barrier closing around him, and knew that soon he wouldn't have enough room to even move. And if it continued to get smaller... _'Rhonda could break this?'_ he thought, his panic growing. _'Man, why didn't the Monkey send her instead of me? I could really use a Chosen One about now...'_

And he remembered sitting across from the Mystical Monkey in the dojo at Yamanouchi. _'You are the Monkey Master.'_ he had said. Ron's eyes lit with realization. _'Wait a second..' _he thought._ 'I'm a Chosen One!'_

Ron stopped pushing against the restraining shadows. He held one hand palm out in front of him with the other raised behind. Try as he might, Ron could think of nothing except for the weird 'tips' the Mystical Monkey had given him back at Yamanouchi, and Maze paused in confusion as Ron started hopping up and down on one foot, making high pitched, monkey-ish squealing noises.

'Wauuuuu!' he shouted. _'Come on, Monkey power!'_ he thought. _'If you're there, the Ron man needs some love!'_ _'Waaaauuuuuu!!!'_

Grimm stared as the air between Ron and Maze seemed to start rippling. It was vibrating like a mirror with trembling glass, and there was a high pitched tweeting sound. Ron's wail reached a piercing shout.

_'Waaauuuuuuuuuuu...!!'_

A sudden burst of blue light lanced from Ron's hands and passed through the shadow barrier as if it weren't there. It was accompanied by an echoing, piercing sound like the chattering screams of monkeys. Maze had only a bare instant to wonder what went wrong before he was flung backwards with the force of a blow that felt like he had been kicked by a horse. The support structure of the mini-Jammer tore apart, and he bounced back and forth within his shadow dome, propelled by Ron's attack.

Grimm felt the shadows which bound him suddenly release and he surged to his feet. He saw Ron standing in front of Maze, and also the swirling, dark field of the shadow barrier. But the barrier faded out of existence a moment later.

The mini-Jammer was lying in smoking pieces around Maze, who was standing stock still, his eyes open but vacant, his jaw slack. Then he fell to his knees and pitched forward, and the Immersion Gloves fell clattering from his hands.

Ron let out a sigh of relief as Maze slumped to the ground. He looked at his hands in surprise. _'Cool move.'_ he thought. _'I'll have to remember that one - might come in handy someday...'_

Grimm was looking back and forth between Ron and Maze. 'That was pretty boss.' he said. 'You never did that when you were Zorpox - you just kind of... stomped on the ground.'

Ron was putting his hands out again, this time aiming at the full sized Jammer. But nothing happened. He tried a couple more times, stretching his arms and grunting. 'Still just comes and goes...' he said. 'Glad it worked that time, though.'

'Guess I owe _you_ one.' Grimm said. He looked around, but besides the trapped golems, and the unconscious Maze, there was no one else about - they were alone. 'No sign of Monkey Fist. I guess that means we won.'

'Hey yeah.' said Ron, a slow smile spreading across his face. 'We _won_! We kicked their kiesters!' He started doing the bon-diggety dance, and Rufus jumped down next to him, copying his moves. 'We woooon! We woooon! That's right - we wooon!' he chanted, going into an end-zone shuffle.

Grimm rolled his eyes yet again, and then a gleam flickered in his eye. 'Well, with the Jammer under our control, we can probably communicate freely.' he said. 'Someone should go back to the bike and check.'

Ron was still dancing, doing the moonwalk. 'What the rush?' he said. 'After all - we woooon! We woooon! We....'

'Monkey Fist is still out there somewhere.' he said. 'And until he's back on the path of the Yono, it looks like his victims will stay petrified.' He paused, putting a curious inflection in his voice. 'I wonder where he is now? I hope he hasn't gone after Yamanouchi....'

At once, Ron froze. 'You think he might have?' he sputtered. 'Then... we have to try and get in touch with Kim! Maybe one of us should go back to the bike and try your communicator!'

'Good idea.' said Grimm sarcastically. 'You're supposed to be such a great runner, think you can get back down faster than we got up?'

'Just watch me!' Ron shouted, and he picked up Rufus, dashing back to the cavern exit. He paused for a second, looking back. 'Hey - you coming?'

'I'll follow after.' Grimm called. 'I've still got the make sure the big Jammer is out of commission for good.' But Ron had turned and dashed pell-mell out of the cavern before he could finish.

_**Part IV: 'Green' Energy**_

Once Ron had left, Grimm waited for a few silent seconds. Then he took out some plastic cords and went up to Maze, who was still lying prone and limp on the cavern floor. With some satisfaction, he bound Maze's knees, ankles, wrists and elbows, making sure that the bands were uncomfortably tight. He knew Maze couldn't hear him, but he couldn't resist muttering under his breath. 'Be grateful I don't hang you upside-down from the ceiling.' he said, remembering his experience back at the UNIT lab.

Then he went past the Jammer, past the generator, and into the inner cavern. There were only a few distant lights on, and almost everything was dark except for stacks of empty crates along the cavern wall, some scaffolding mounted high above, and a jumble of broken stone and rubble. _'This must be where they built the giant golem,'_ he thought, looking around. Everything was silent except for the humming of the generator in the main cavern.

'You can come out now.' he called out, his voice echoing from the rough walls. 'It's over - Stoppable's gone.' At the far end of the cavern, nearly fifty yards away, Dr. Drakken crawled out from behind a jumble of crates, then stood up, dusting his coat.

Grimm raised his eyebrow as he approached, with Shegolem following him. 'It was _you_, wasn't it?' he said. 'You were the one who tipped off Kim's website about where to find the lair.'

Drakken glowered, but it was a more gentle glower than his normal grimace. 'I'd have done it sooner, but they were watching me like a hawk from the moment they brought me here. It was only after they launched their scheme that they relaxed enough for me to sneak out an email. My scanners detected you coming - I had to make sure Shego and I were out of earshot so she wouldn't be part of the fight.'

'Why'd you do it?' said Grimm. Drakken was walking back into the main cavern, and Grimm followed him. 'World domination was always what you've wanted. Their plan might have worked if you hadn't squealed.'

'I _told_ those posers when they first showed up!' said Drakken, his arms folded. 'When it comes to taking over the world, Dr. Drakken doesn't _share_! It's the whole ball of wax or nothing!'

'Well,' said Grimm, nodding. 'Just remember Team Probable if you need any jobs done.'

Drakken twiddled his fingers nervously for a moment. 'Ah... you won't _tell_ any of the other villains I ratted out to Kim Possible, will you?' he said.

'Give us 10% extra on our next mission, and it's a deal.' said Grimm. 'What will you do in the meantime?'

'What will I _do_?' said Drakken, striding to one of the last crates next to the computer tables. He hurled the lid open and heaved out what looked like some kind of futuristic bazooka. 'I'll tell you what I'm gonna _do_!' Then he threw back his head and his voice rose to a raspy scream that filled the entire cavern and echoed from every corner. _'I'm a-firin' my LASEEEEEEERRR!!!'_

Then he shouldered the device and a piercing beam of white light screamed through the cavern with a reverberating _boom_ and sliced straight through the center of the Ultra-Atmospheric Jammer. It pierced all the way through and blew a chunk out of the cavern wall behind.

With peals of maniacal laughter, Drakken fired again and again, sending blast after blast ripping through the Jammer until it resembled a towering, smoking pile of metallic Swiss cheese. Finally, there was an ominous, squealing sound. The Jammer pulled loose from it's restraining gantries. It swayed, tottered, and then fell with a mighty crash to the stone floor, splitting open and spilling it's innards of wire and circuitry everywhere. There was a hail of sparking flashes and a rise of billowing, acrid smoke. The huge generator sent out a flurry of sparks, whirred feebly, and then fell silent.

Grimm raised his eyebrow as Dr. Drakken tossed the cannon aside and dusted his black, gloved hands. 'You know,' he said warily, 'If you did that to Kim Possible, you might actually _win_.'

'Bah!' said Drakken, waving his hand. 'Like I need such pedestrian methods to deal with _her_!' He turned to Shego, who had stood still and silent through the entire sequence of events. 'What about Shego, she's not stuck like this forever is she?'

Grimm wasn't exactly sure. He had only been freed from the golem enchantment himself when Kim had scratched out the _Aleph_ symbol Maze had branded onto his left hand. This hadn't been done to any of the petrified people in the lair. And he realized suddenly why all the golems on Earth had been stopped after he used the Jammer - all _except_ for Monkey Fist's petrified victims. The constructed statues had no 'spirit' of their own - but Monkey Fist's victims did. The Great Bear's power had banished the shadow medicine Maze had used on the statues - but there was still something that prevented the spell from working on those who had been petrified with the Yono's power. They still needed, as he had, for the golem enchantment to be fully broken.

He took the diamond-tipped stylus from his hip pouch and handed it to Drakken. 'Let's find out.' he said. 'Make her hold out her left hand, palm down.'

Drakken ordered her, and Shego raised her arm. 'Scratch out this symbol here.' Grimm said, pointing to the _Aleph_ mark. Drakken hesitated, then drew the stylus hard across Shego's hand.

The symbols all began to glow, and then smoked as if they were on fire. Her stone skin began melting away like a layer of ice, and an outfit of bright green and black showed through. After a few more seconds, a grating female scream tore through the cavern.

_'Draaaaaaken!!!'_ Shego screeched.

Drakken smiled. 'Shego - you're back...!' But he yelped and scampered away as a burst of green fire exploded at his feet.

_'You made me cook for you again! I can't believe you! What is it about you and the stupid Dodo bird??!!'_

Grimm tried to step aside, but Drakken was ducking back and forth behind him, using him as a shield while Shego leaned to and fro, trying to get a clear shot. 'Out of the way kid, or I fry _both_ of you!' she yelled.

Grimm sighed and activated the suit's shield mode. A glowing orange sphere spread out around him, throwing both Drakken and Shego backwards.

Drakken yelped and dashed away. 'Come on - I got bored with it, didn't I?' he shouted, dodging more green fireballs.

_'You made me wear... that... stupid... apron...!'_

'At least it wasn't a cheerleader outfit!' Drakken sputtered.

She had him cornered against the wreckage of the Ultra-Atmospheric Jammer, and Drakken cringed. Shego's hands were glowing green and she stood there wheezing in rage, her eyes glittering. But she had stopped attacking. 'I should burn you _extra crispy_!' she hissed. 'But... you did save me just now.' she said, almost resentfully. 'And it was pretty cool the way you blew up the giant doo-dad.'

'So... everything's square?' Dr. Drakken said timidly.

'I'll... decide later.' she said, through gritted teeth. Her eyes turned to Maze, who was still lying bound and unconscious next to one of the tables. 'He wouldn't _feel_ it if I hit him right now, would he?'

'Doubt it.' said Grimm.

'Well I'm darn sure gonna hit _something_ that can feel it before today's over!' she growled.

'You can start with the henchmen!' said Drakken, an eager light rekindling in his eyes. 'To the hover-car! It's time to blow this popsicle stand and return to _my_ lair!'

'Your hover-car is _here_?' said Grimm. 'Why didn't you bolt sooner?'

'They chained it down!' Drakken said angrily. 'The whole thing is covered with padlocks! And Shego wouldn't let me get close enough to it...'

'Hey - _who_ was golem slave?' Shego shot back.  
'Well you're not a slave _now_ - how about cutting through the chains?'  
'Oh you want me to do all the work?'  
'I've been _working_ on their stuff for weeks - I deserve a break!'  
'I got your break right _here_...'

Grimm shook his head as Dr. Drakken and Shego moved further back into the cavern, their voices fading, but still bickering. Before long, he heard a series of small explosions, and distant flashes of green light. Then there was a humming sound, and a rounded metal craft appeared, hovering upwards above the Jammer's twisted remains. It circled once above the cavern, rose through the open hatchway, and disappeared into the distance.

Grimm looked over the wreck of the Ultra-Atmospheric Jammer and unshouldered his backpack. _'Time to make sure the job's finished.'_ he thought.

* * *

Ron was still stumbling and scrambling back down the steep slopes towards where he thought the bike was hidden, when he heard explosions. Turning back he saw blooms of light rising from the mountain peak, and a billowing smoke.

_'So that's what a blowing up lair looks like from the outside!'_ Ron thought. _'I guess it just seemed bigger all those times I was at ground zero...'_

He was puffing and wheezing by the time he got all the way down, and was looking around. 'Aw man!' he said. 'Did we park by the big rock surrounded by little bushes or by a big bush surrounded by little rocks?' After dashing to and fro for a while, he heard Rufus squeaking, and saw him pointing over a small bluff.

Relieved, Ron saw the purplish gleam of the _Ksikkihkíni,_ nestled among some brush and overhanging branches. He ran over and started hitting buttons on the dash. 'Which one's the communicator?' he said.

_'Unauthorized access - engaging defense mechanisms.'_

Ron paused as he heard the computerized female voice, and then a spark of electricity snapped into the hand he was using on the console. 'Ow!' He jumped back away from the bike, sucking on his finger. He tried to approach the bike a couple more times, only to get zapped again.

'Come on - Grimm _sent_ me here!' he shouted uselessly at the bike. He was tired and impatient. He thought about going back up the mountain to get Grimm, but he was anxious to get information _now_. 'This is just great!' he said, kicking the ground. 'Kim could be in trouble! If only I had a communicator...'

Rufus was poking out of his hip pouch and tugging at his sleeve. Next to him inside the hip pouch was a familiar, sleek object with several buttons and a screen.

'...of my _own_.' Ron said, slapping his palm into his face. He took out Kim's old Kimmunicator and turned it on. At once it started beeping with a well-known four note tune and he answered, seeing Wade's face.

'Ron!' he said, sounding relieved. 'My detector says the global satellite network is freed up! Does that mean...'

'You bet!' Ron said proudly. 'Monkey Fist's Jammer is officially _jammed_!'

'That's great! I'm spreading the word as fast as I can - NASA and other control systems should be able to start taking control again. Global communication should be back up and running before long.'

'What about Kim?' said Ron. 'Is everyone OK?'

'Still haven't been able to get in touch with Yamanouchi.' Wade answered. 'I'm working on it. I bet they've got news of their own...'

* * *

Maze came back painfully to himself. He found he was lying on the cavern floor and he tried to sit up, but his wrists and ankles smarted as he tried to move. He saw he was bound with cords around his ankles, and knew his hands were tied behind his back as well. He looked and saw Grimm Probable using a sledgehammer and smashing bits of the miniature Jammer they had labored so long to build. Looking further back into the cavern, he saw the full sized Jammer was already wrecked.

Fury rose in him, but also fear. He didn't know how Possible's clumsy friend had defeated him, and he looked swiftly around the cavern. All his remaining golem slaves were still trapped in that strange white substance. But he tried calling them just the same. If even one of them could pull free, they might come to his aid. _'Come to me.'_ he said in a muted whisper, focusing his will on them.

The golems seemed to be struggling inside the Moo Goo, but the foam held them in place. The sculpted statues made into golems remained motionless. Maze could sense that the power which animated them had been broken somehow.

Probable was distracted for the moment, but for how long? The female golem, Shego; she could burn through the substance that held his golems prisoner. But he could not see her anywhere in the cavern, and to raise his voice would only draw _Otaatoyiwa's_ attention. The blue one - Drakken - was also gone, and he knew suddenly how Probable had found them.

_Betrayal_ - he had not watched Drakken closely enough, nor ordered his golems to oversee him. Too eager in the success of their operations, he had allowed himself to relax his guard - and the blue one must have sent out a message to guide _Otaatoyiwa_ to the lair. He gritted his teeth as he struggled in his bonds, trying not to move too much for fear of _Otaatoyiwa_ seeing him.

He focused his will again on the golems nearest to him. _'Come to me...!'_ He saw them shifting and twisting in the spheres of white foam, but none of them were able to budge from where they were stuck, frozen in place.

Grimm was wrecking the computers on their desks now, and that would only take him a few more minutes - he was running out of time. Maze looked wildly around the cavern for something - _anything_ that might aid him. He looked at the boxes, the desks, the wreckage of the Jammer, and his eyes fell on a bird.

Wild hope sprang in his mind. _The crow_. The crow he and Monkey Fist had petrified and then animated over two weeks ago - to test if the Yono's power of stone would work with the golem enchantment. It had remained on its perch - silent and forgotten - as he and Monkey Fist had turned their attention to other matters. And it was still there, waiting for orders.

'_Come to me._' he whispered, focusing all the will power he could muster and staring at the petrified bird. '_Release me from these bonds....!'_ And the crow hopped down from it's perch, moving towards him...

* * *

Grimm wiped his forehead as the last computer console was smashed. He went over the desks one more time, knowing that the hard drives of some computers might still be intact, and he double checked to make sure each one had a sizable dent. He fingered the EMP grenade in his hip pouch. Once he had wrecked the computers physically, all that remained to make sure they could not be salvaged was to set it off. It was based on the EMP dart specs that Jade had stolen from Wade's hard drive while they were in Middleton - a handy way to make sure that once he left the lair, no one would be able to recover any components or usable data.

Drakken was long gone, and Ron had been away for nearly half an hour. He smirked, wondering if Ron had realized that the bike was still locked down. The buffoon had left without even asking him for the access key. But it was just as well he had the time alone. Like his meeting with Dr. Drakken, there were other things he wanted to get done without any of Possible's crew being the wiser.

He looked around once more to make sure that all the things Jade had said he should wreck were properly damaged and smoking. Then he drew out the EMP grenade, put it on the table and set the timer.

The golems wouldn't be harmed by it, but he still felt he should get clear in case any power surges were triggered by the EMP. He turned to get Maze, and was looking forward to the satisfaction of dragging him out of the lair like a sack of grain.

Then he was slamming his fist onto the table with frustrated rage. There were several strands of severed cord on the floor. Maze was gone.

_Coming Soon:  
Chapter 33_

_Which came first - the phoenix or the flame?_

_ Yes, this was only the first of two showdowns. Maze may have been beaten, the Jammer may be destroyed - but unless Monkey Fist goes down too, it could start all over again! What has been going on with Kim at the Yamanouchi School while all this was happening....? Only the next chapter will show! Don't get tired of the story yet, because:_

_1 indestructible golem Monkey Fist + the power of the Yono + 1 Kim Possible + 1 ninja school = a showdown you won't want to miss!_


	34. Ch 33: A Circle Has No Beginning

A Friend In Darkness  
All Things Probable 3  
A Kim Possible Fanfiction  
by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and its affiliates, etc. etc.

_This chapter is dedicated to fanfic writer cpneb, wishing him well during his current medical issues,_  
_and wishing him a swift and complete recovery. P.S. - Rhonda says 'Hi'_

Chapter 33  
_A Circle Has No Beginning_

_**Part I:  
The Yono Returns**_

The Yamanouchi School was a rush of activity. Everywhere, students were arming, tying their black belts in place and donning masks. A large clutch of ninja were organized in the courtyard, standing in rigid, neat rows. Master Sensei stood at the head of them, giving out instructions and orders.

Grimm and Ron had left hours ago and night had fallen. Kim had been unable to contact Ron by communicator, and she was worried. It was only Wade's technical skills that allowed him to get through the Ultra-Atmospheric Jammer's interference, but he had been unable to link her up with Ron. But she stood a short distance apart from the assembled Yamanouchi students, and continued trying to contact him periodically.

There was a shout from across the courtyard that rose above the other sounds and Kim looked to see a pair of ninja running in through the gates. They bowed to Sensei, and one of them spoke, his voice sounding slightly breathless through his hood. 'I bring news, Master Sensei. Our scouts have seen an army coming up the trail, heading towards the school.'

'Who leads them?' said Master Sensei, though his tone of voice seemed to indicate that he already knew.

'It is Monkey Fist.' the ninja answered, and Kim felt her hand clenching. 'Unless they change their pace, they will be here in less than half an hour.'

Sensei nodded, and the scouts joined the other assembled ninja. 'An hour of destiny swiftly approaches.' said Sensei, his deep voice rising. 'This time, we stand and fight - not only in defense of our school. We fight to deliver the entire world from domination by evil and darkness. Fear neither - but stand firm and with courage!'

The entire school answered with once voice, which rose in a piercing shout that rang through the night and echoed from the surrounding peaks. '_Hai_!'

Kim felt the sound waves of their call ripple through her. There was something infectious about hearing a battle cry from a determined team. Maybe it came from her many years of cheerleading and watching the enthusiasm of the Mad Dogs, but Kim felt a wild desire to lend her own voice to the shout. But if the scouts were right, there wasn't much time left, and she had some things that needed to be taken care of.

Monique tapped her foot restlessly. Kim had rushed her into one of the storage buildings in the sheltered rear courtyard of the Yamanouchi School. It was a modest size building, filled with barrels, gunnysacks and wooden boxes. It had a musty, disused smell. She listened to Kim with a numb feeling of detachment.

'This one is going to be way dangerous.' Kim said. 'The last time you met Monkey Fist he...'

'Threw me off a cliff.' said Monique, shivering. 'Yeah, I kinda remember that.'

'And there are plenty of cliffs around here.' said Kim, her eyes and voice full of concern. 'So I want you to sit this one out. I said I'd make sure nothing happened to you, and right now that means keep you away from Monkey Fist.'

Monique lowered her eyes. 'I want to argue with you.' she said. 'I want to say I'll do something to help. But...' She faltered.

Kim nodded. 'But you know there's nothing you _can_ do.' she said sympathetically. 'You gave Monkey Fist a mean right hook and he didn't even feel it. Please - don't try to take him on again. You've done so much in this caper already. You've proved you're my BFFF a hundred times over. Just wait here until it's over, and if you see Monkey Fist come back here, then clear out as fast as you can.'

Monique shrugged and nodded, still not able to look up at Kim. Sewing Camille Leon into a cloth prison was one thing, but she knew there wasn't anything she could do to Monkey Fist. 'So... what's _your _plan for beating him?' she said.

Kim ran her hand across her forehead with a short laugh. 'Good comeback.' she said. 'Fact is, I'm not sure either. But I'm going to have a word with Master Sensei to see if I can get some answers. Promise me you'll stay out of sight.'

Monique rolled her eyes. 'Do I have to stay here with _him_?'

At that moment, Enrique popped out from behind a stack of crates. He whipped a gingham cloth over one of the boxes, and in a flash he laid out a platter with a loaf of bread, two cups, a water skin, and a lit candle. '_Buena suerte_!' he said with a broad smile. 'I found several crates with provisions! It may not be the most comfortable of retreats, but at least we are well stored!'

Kim put her hand on Monique's shoulder, smiling faintly. 'Try to make the best of it.' she said, and went out heading back for the main courtyard.

'England may have made a few bad apples like Monkey Fist.' said Enrique, pouring out the water skin into the cups. 'But I cannot fault the words of their Immortal Bard - A loaf of bread, a jug of water, and thou!' He raised his cup and drank.

Monique sighed heavily, sitting warily down on a cask before picking up her own glass and making sure it was only water before taking a sip. After a tense, quiet moment, she spoke. 'Don't you _dare_ try any of that 'this could be our last night on Earth' stuff with me, home-boy!'

Enrique paused in mid-sip. 'You think it might be?' he said. 'That never occurred to me!'

Monique winced, preparing for what was shaping up to be a long night.

Groups of students were moving in teams to various sections of the courtyard when Kim returned. Sensei had only a few people left around him, including Yori, when she approached. 'Master Sensei,' she said. 'I think he's coming for _me_. I'm not afraid of him - but I _am _afraid of what he might do to get to me. I think I should...'

Sensei held up his hand to stop her. 'I know what you wish to say, Kim Possible.' he said in his deep, soothing voice. 'You wish to leave the school in an attempt to draw Monkey Fist away and leave Yamanouchi in peace.'

Kim nodded. 'Yeah, pretty much.' she said. 'When the Yono attacked, he tore the school apart. The only reason no one got hurt was because you told the students to evacuate. But now...'

'Now, Kim Possible - there is nowhere safe for them to run.' The ninja master shook his head with a grim smile beneath his beard. 'The entire Earth is under attack by Monkey Fist and his stone soldiers.' he said. 'If we flee this time - where shall we go? To the lowland cities? Those are overrun with golems. To the mountain peaks? How long before we are discovered and captured - or starved out? Yamanouchi is one of the last safe islands of refuge in a world now filled with enemies. Here we shall stay, and we will help to deliver the world from peril - or fall in battle with honor.' Beside him, Yori gave a short nod, her face set and determined.

Kim was impressed and touched by their courage. But she wanted to speak plainly to the ninja master. 'He's got an _army_ of golems in tow.' she said. 'None of the weapons you have here will do anything to stop them. The only thing that might work is the Lotus Blade - and Ron's not here to use it.'

'That is true.' said Sensei, nodding. 'I can only answer by saying this. It was on advice from one whom I trust that the Chosen One left here... with Probable-San.' He ended with a glance towards Toshimiru's dojo.

Rhonda sat in a dorm room, listening to what was happening outside. She sighed. It was too soon. She'd barely been back a full day, and a big battle was shaping up. On the one hand, her time in the spirit world had been spent doing nothing but resting. There was nothing to do there but float around, talk or think. Given that, she _should_ have felt ready for some action.

On the other hand, she had spent much of that 'doing nothing' time doing things that hardly felt like _nothing_. First there had been the fear of the unknown. Then annoyance at finding herself trapped there with Ron. Then the growing discomfort and pain caused by what Ron called 'bad vibes', and his lessons on how to stop them. There was also the growing misery and despair caused by her infrequent glimpses of Grimm, and always the terrible fear that they would be trapped there forever.

It had certainly not been _restful_. On the contrary, it had been a spiritual and emotional roller-coaster full of dizzying highs and sickening lows that never seemed to end. Then there was the blissful joy when they had finally been rescued. She had been looking forward to going home and just _sleeping_ for a day or two. Sleep - plain and simple, without fear or worry of any kind. Grimm would understand, and so would Jade. She wanted more than anything just to rest.

But now she was inside enemy territory, and a tremendous battle was looming that she knew she was expected to take part in. She remembered helping Grimm raid Yamanouchi to steal the Lotus Blade just before the mess with Zorpox and the Mega Synaptic Transducer, and wondered if this 'Sensei' guy and his students remembered it. She half expected them to throw her out at any moment. And part of her wouldn't have minded, because she had heard them in the courtyard shouting that Monkey Fist was coming, and she really wasn't anxious to be there when it happened.

Normally she would be _helping_ Monkey Fist with some crazy scheme. As part of Team Probable, she and Grimm had done lots of jobs for him in the past. Finding moldy old scrolls, weird crystal keys, statues or other junk that he had said were essential for his plans to be 'the ultimate monkey master'. But Monkey Fist had helped Maze banish her to the spirit world. Even if he were willing, she didn't want to throw in with him anymore.

If Yamanouchi did throw her out for being Grimm's partner, then her only other option would be to hide somewhere, wait until it was all over and see who won. Without Grimm there, she felt alone and unwanted, just like she'd felt in the spirit world.

She heard the paper door to her room sliding open, and a short man carrying a staff entered. Rhonda glanced once at Chief Sakituya, then looked away again. Rueful trilled softly, looking back and forth between them.

'You should be outside with the others, _Katasiistikoowa_.' he said. 'Your place is with them.'

'My place is with Grimm.' she said sadly. 'And he's not here. These guys don't need me. No one here even wants me around.'

Sakituya regarded her for a moment. 'You are mistaken, I think.' he said. 'Gentle Paw is always glad to see you - should I bring him in?'

Rhonda yelped, scrabbling backwards. 'You brought that crazy bear with you??' she shrieked. Then she saw the Indian Chief chuckling.

'My apologies.' he said. 'I suppose that was a 'cheap shot'.'

Rhonda put her hands over her head. 'What is _wrong_ with you?' she said. 'You were always like that - even back at camp. Can't you tell that bear scares me to death?'

'I suppose not.' he answered with a smile. 'Just as you cannot seem to tell that Gentle Paw only wishes to be your friend.'

'It doesn't seem like it.' Rhonda said sullenly.

'Many times men refuse to see the truth, and fail to do what they know is right merely because of their perceptions.' he said. Rhonda raised an eyebrow. 'Man in the _total_ sense.' he added. 'I think you will find, if you gave him the chance, that Gentle Paw is very kind and friendly. Just as I think the people outside would be grateful if you joined them for this battle.'

'Not Possible.' said Rhonda. 'The last time we met, it wasn't _friendly_.'

'Time passes.' said Sakituya. 'Wounds heal. Enemies can become allies.' He slid the door back open and gestured into the night air. 'Challenge the perceptions which bind you, _Katasiistikoowa_. And you may find that you are stronger than they are.'

Rhonda sighed and got to her feet. Rueful eagerly climbed up her leg and arm and onto her shoulder. She moved slowly to the door. Chief Sakituya patted her shoulder as she passed.

'You are the Bear Priestess, _Katasiistsikoowa_.' said Sakituya warmly. 'You have not yet fully accepted it - just as you did not fully understand it in the Bear Spirit's hollow. But the realization will come to you in time. Until then, simply do what comes to you... _naturally_.'

Kim raced across the courtyard towards Toshimiru's dojo. She caught a flutter of light at the top of the short set of stairs leading into the building. A short, diminutive figure was shuffling through the doorway and passing inside. Kim dashed up the stairs in pursuit. 'Hey! _Hey_!' she shouted.

The Mystical Monkey was crossing the floor of the dojo as she entered in, heading towards the Buddha statue. At her shout, he paused and looked back at her. 'What on your mind, red?' he said in his high, squeaking voice, though there was an almost somber tone to it now.

Kim stared at him. Outside, she could hear the continuing hustle and bustle of running feet and the occasional echoing voice calling out as the Yamanouchi students prepared for battle. 'You're _leaving_.' she said.

The Mystical Monkey nodded. 'It time for me to go, red.' he said. 'It been fun hanging out wit' you. Good luck.'

'You're going _now_?' she said. 'Just before the fight starts?'

'You thinking I deserting you.' said the Mystical Monkey, wagging his finger. 'Not so. I already done a lot more for you than I normally do for people in need. Now it time for _you_ to do what you do best.'

Kim shook her head. She was used to being frustrated when the Mystical Monkey was around, and wondered for a moment why she wanted him to stay. 'But I saw you in action.' she said, looking around at the practice dummies, many of which still lay broken on the floor. 'You could totally kick butt!'

'Thank you...' said the Mystical Monkey with a comic bow.

'Then why leave? With your help, Monkey Fist wouldn't stand a chance.' she said, trying to be respectful.

'Oh, I just be in the way.' said the Mystical Monkey with a slow smile. 'You not need me anymore. You got Kim Possible - I hear she pretty tough.'

Kim sighed. Of all the times to be given a _pep talk_. 'The bad guys coming here are pretty tough too.' said Kim. 'Indestructible golems? Yono-charged Monkey Fist?'

'Odds still even, red.' said the Mystical Monkey. 'Speaking of odd, you got Chosen One. There plenty here going for you.'

Kim sighed, covering her eyes. 'Not _Rhonda_.' she said. 'She's one of the _bad guys_. Plus she's a klutz, she's flighty, she's totally unpredictable in a fight...'

'Ooooh!' said the Mystical Monkey, shaking his finger. 'Which Chosen One you talking about, red?'

Kim felt her face flaming. '_Don't..._ talk like that about Ron!' she said fiercely.

'Just checking.' The Mystical Monkey put up his hands. 'Wanted to make sure you not already forget what you learned on your spiritual journey.'

'I didn't forget.' said Kim. 'How could I?'

'Don't forget then, Chosen One _and_ Chosen One were both in spirit world together.' The Mystical Monkey pursed his lips and stared at her. 'They learn lessons of their own together. And they were both _saved_ together. She not so bad, red. Give her a chance - you might be surprised.'

Kim nodded, but she tried once more. 'You remember what happened the last time the Yono showed up here, right?' she said.

'I remember lots of things.' said the Mystical Monkey. 'But do you remember... _that_?' and he pointed firmly outside the dojo.

Kim reflexively glanced towards where he was pointing and saw only the bare ground of the courtyard. Even as her eyes darted back, she knew she'd been tricked. The dojo was empty, except for herself. There was no sign of the Mystical Monkey. She sighed, then left the silent dojo.

_**Part II:  
Girl Talk**_

When Kim got to the bottom of the stairs, she saw Rhonda a short distance away. She was standing in the middle of the courtyard with Rueful on her shoulder. Yamanouchi students were still hurrying back and forth, bustling around her. But somehow she seemed alone and uncomfortable, staring at Kim with a strange look in her blue eyes. Somehow, she knew they were both thinking about the same thing - about their last big encounter.

_ They were fighting in the labs at YoyoDyne Propulsion systems. Kim had been expecting an easy win, but Rhonda had completely thrown her for a loop with her 'bear powers'. She taunted Kim, sneering. 'Bet you wish your sidekick had powers! Oh wait - he does! So why's he not here pitching in?'_

_ Kim glared at her. 'Maybe he knows I don't need to use powers as a crutch.' she said._

_ Rhonda's eyes narrowed. 'Or maybe he can't use them for you because you're not important to him.' she said._

_ 'As if.' Kim growled._

_ Rhonda smirked. 'He used them for us without any trouble.' she said. 'In fact when he was using his Monkey mojo to smack you around it looked like the easiest thing in the world for him.'_

Kim bit her lip, recalling her spiritual journey, and the realization that Zorpox was the unfettered aspect of Ron, a part that wanted revenge for all the sacrifices he had made, which Kim had mostly ignored. His Zorpox aspect was focused, skilled, intelligent, determined and ruthless. All the things that Ron wasn't.

_ 'I bet it still steams you royally.' Rhonda had said as their fight continued in the labs. 'You jealous? Jealous because we did more for Ron by making him evil than you ever did for him when he was good? Face it pom-pon - Ron was faster, stronger and smarter when he was on our side! Maybe he only steps up depending on the quality of the company he's with!'_

Her reverie ended abruptly. She hadn't been aware of walking towards Rhonda, but she must have been, because Rhonda was now only a few feet away. They stood across from each other, and all seemed silent around them, despite the surrounding clamor of the Yamanouchi School.

'The Mystical Monkey said I should talk to you...' Kim started.

'Chief Sakituya said I should talk to you...' Rhonda said at the same time.

Rhonda blushed and looked away, tugging at her sleeve. 'Look...' said Kim. '...we don't have to like it, but we need to work together if we're gonna stand a chance against Monkey Fist.'

Rhonda still wouldn't look at her, but she nodded. 'I'll do it for Grimm.' she said. 'I know he's counting on me.'

Kim paused, because it sounded almost exactly like something Ron would have said.

And she couldn't stop herself from asking a question she had been wondering in the back of her mind from the first day they had encountered Team Probable. 'What is it about Grimm, anyway?' she said. 'Why do you let him boss you around?'

Rhonda looked up, her face hurt and defiant. 'He doesn't _boss me around_.' she said. 'I help him out because he's my best friend, and I don't want him to go into a sitch without someone to back him up. He's always been there to help me out when I've been in trouble, and I'll always be there for him.'

'Why are you even friends with him?' Kim said. 'He's manipulative, selfish...'

'You don't know him like I do.' said Rhonda. 'He's a great guy. He's handsome, he's confident, he's sweet....'

'We're talking about _Grimm_, right?' said Kim squeezing one eye nearly shut.

'Besides, he's a great kisser...' Rhonda went on, a dreamy, unfocused look in her eyes.

'Ew!' said Kim. 'TMI...'

'TMA!' said Rhonda. At Kim's confused look, she said, 'Too Many Acronyms.'

Kim sighed. 'Look - do you want to help or not?'

'Of course I want to help!' said Rhonda. 'I saw what they did to all those people, and to Grimm! And now Grimm's going off to their lair to tackle Maze all by himself...'

'_Ron_ is there too!' said Kim, her temper flaring.

'I'm sorry!' said Rhonda, and she dashed a sudden tear from her eye as she looked away. 'I didn't mean to sound like... It's just... Maze might do to Grimm what he did to _me_.'

Kim's anger died, because Rhonda looked genuinely distressed, nothing like the confident spitfire she'd faced in YoyoDyne. As much as she despised Grimm, she decided that she didn't really have anything against Rhonda. She even found herself patting an awkward hand on her shoulder.

'Uh... Come on, calm down.' she said, not sure what else to say.

Rhonda was crying. 'I'm scared...' she sobbed. 'After all that time, and finally getting out of the spirit world. If I lose him now I don't know what I'll do!'

'Look, don't cry.' said Kim, pleadingly. She hadn't liked it when Bonnie had cried about getting dumped by Brick, and this was even worse. 'And don't worry about Grimm, he's tough.' She paused a moment, realizing she had just said something _nice_ about Grimm. 'Besides it's like I said... Ron's with him. They'll be fine.'

Rhonda wiped her eyes again, sniffling. 'Yeah, I guess you're right.' she said. 'If I don't help out, and something happened to you, Ron would be totally bummed.' She paused for a moment. 'He really likes you, you know.' she said. 'In the spirit world, all he could think about was getting back to you. He always worries that he's not good enough for you.'

Kim felt shocked. 'Why would he think that?' she said. 'We've always been best friends...'

Rhonda shrugged. 'Same reasons you were asking me about, I guess.' she said. 'You're popular, you're smart, you're strong... He thinks he's lucky to just be around you, even when you're hauling him around on missions he'd rather not be part of. And he's always afraid that someday you'll wake up - and leave him behind for people who are more like you.'

Kim shook her head. Even after her spiritual journey, even after knowing Ron for years, somehow this had never occurred to her. 'How do you know this?' she asked.

'Because...' said Rhonda, lowering her eyes. 'He and I are a lot alike. And that's how _I_ feel.'

Kim couldn't help feeling touched, even though she was starting to have trouble keeping it straight whether she was talking about how Grimm felt about Rhonda, or how she felt about Ron, or vice-versa. 'If Grimm ever left you to hang with a cooler crowd,' she said, 'then he'd be an even bigger jerk than I thought he was. And I _always_ thought he was a big jerk.' But as she spoke, she felt a weird sensation that she was giving _herself_ the same advice.

Rhonda got a little of her bluster back as she stared at Kim. 'Hey, don't call my BF a jerk!'

Kim held out her hand. Hesitantly, Rhonda took it. And amid the clamor at Yamanouchi, Kim Possible and Rhonda Fatigable shook hands. 'There's still a little more time before the fireworks start.' said Kim. 'Why don't we get together with Sensei and the others and see what we can work out?'

'So... you still want me to pitch in?' she said. 'Even after... everything?'

'Even after.' said Kim, managing a faint smile. 'Let's go.'

After their talk, the urgency and rushed atmosphere of the school seemed to close in on them. Even as they searched for Master Sensei, a pair of masked ninja approached them, leading them quickly towards the main building. 'There is not much time.' said one. 'Master Sensei wishes to speak with both of you.'

They were ushered into the same council room as the one they had used when the Mystical Monkey had ordered Ron and Grimm to journey to the lair in England. Master Sensei was there, and Yori, and other students who had been appointed leaders to different teams.

'Our defensive arrangements have been made.' said the ninja master. 'Our students are armed and deployed across the entire school. But if what you say is correct, our weapons will not be sufficient. Even your battle-suit cannot stop them. We must find some way to counter their invulnerability.'

'But how do you _counter_ something that's invulnerable?' said Kim. 'Plus Monkey Fist has a lot more strength now.' She turned to Rhonda. 'The battle-suit will help, but what exactly can you bring to the table?'

Rhonda looked nervous as the room's attention focused on her, and she cleared her throat before answering. 'Well... Grimm helped me practice how to call on the Great Bear for help.' said Rhonda. 'His power protects me from getting hurt, and it makes me stronger.'

'I remember you had a long range attack.' said Kim. 'What was that thing you used to tear up the YoyoDyne lab?'

'The Spirit Strike?' said Rhonda.

'What would it do to Monkey Fist?'

Rhonda bit her lip. 'I... don't know.' she said. 'It's kind of like an EMP. It weakens people, it disrupts electricity, it even turns off super powers like Hego's - for a while.'

Kim felt ideas exploding in her head. '_Mystical_ powers too?' she said.

Rhonda nodded. 'Yeah, it broke up Maze's shadow magic. It can tear up anything that's not organic, but it doesn't hurt plants or animals.'

Kim thought she could see now, why the Mystical Monkey had insisted that Rhonda stay at Yamanouchi. The words blazed through her mind - _disrupts mystical powers, damages anything that's not organic_. She envisioned Monkey Fist, with his petrified, stone skin. And his golem army, bound and enslaved by mystical enchantment. Rhonda's power seemed like the very thing they needed to counter those advantages. She also thought this explained why Maze and Monkey Fist had targeted Ron and Rhonda first before proceeding with their plans. If Rhonda's Spirit Strike could break the golem enchantment, it would have put their whole scheme at risk. And if her power could break the Yono's curse as well, then Rhonda would have been a tremendous danger to them.

'We need you to hit Monkey Fist with the Spirit Strike.' she said. 'If we can do that, we can take him down once and for all.'

'But Monkey Fist is _made_ of stone now!' Rhonda said, sounding distressed. 'What if it slices _through_ him or something? Or what if I miss and hit some of the people he's got with him? I want to stop him, but I don't want to _kill_ anyone - Grimm would never want that!'

Kim blinked, remembering what Grimm had done to Gill at the soda factory in Middleton - dousing him in salt to stop him. It had been ruthless and brutal. But he _had_ said that he wouldn't maim or injure anyone - and she wasn't about to either. 'I don't think it would hurt Monkey Fist.' she said. 'I think it would break the Yono's spell and turn him back to flesh and blood. And a flesh and blood Monkey Fist is something I can _handle_.' she ended confidently.

'And if we are fortunate,' said Sensei, 'It will also strip him of the Yono's power, leaving him defenseless.'

Rhonda still looked doubtful, but nodded. 'If you say so.' she said. 'But I still don't want to hit any of the golems he's got with him. They didn't ask to be part of this - they were shanghaied. If the strike _hurts_ them....'

'All right.' said Kim. 'Then just be careful that Monkey Fist is the only one you hit.'

'The Spirit Strike isn't really a 'pinpoint accuracy' thing.' said Rhonda. 'I'll stand a better chance of not hitting anyone else if I could get in close.'

'Then we must find a way for you to do this.' said Master Sensei. 'A way for you to hide, as it were, in plain sight.' And he gestured to one of the students, who nodded and handed Rhonda a black bundle. Rhonda unfolded it, and held up a black _gi_.

'Oh boy...' she said, nervously.

_**Part III:  
The BIG Battle**_

The Yamanouchi School was quiet. A soft breeze blew through the courtyard, stirring up zephyrs of dust and rustling leaves on the trees.

Then from outside the walls, there was a sudden flash of yellow light. With a deafening _boom_, the large doors leading into the courtyard were blasted off their hinges and flew tumbling across the ground.

Through broken rock and settling dust, a lone figure strode through the archway. 'Knock... _knock_.' said Monkey Fist with a quiet smile. Once inside, he paused, looking back and forth across the courtyard. There was no one to be seen.

Monkey Fist waited in silence for a few seconds and then shouted, his voice echoing through the walls. 'Kim Possible!' he cried out. But no one answered. 'I know you're here! Come out and face me!' He paused again, smirking. 'Or are you _afraid_?' he taunted.

Another few seconds passed in silence. Then a slender figure walked out from the far side of the courtyard, emerging from behind one of the dorm buildings. Kim Possible halted a dozen paces away from him and the two faced each other with narrowed eyes. Her battle-suit glowed in the surrounding shadows. 'Monkey Fist.' she said simply.

Monkey Fist smiled and spread out his arms. 'Ah, the _cheer squad_.' he said. 'I almost regret that this will be the last time I address you with that salutation.'

'You don't know how right you are, _Monty_.' said Kim, raising her arms in a fighting stance.

'Oh I do, Miss Possible.' said Monkey Fist. 'I have been looking forward to this for a long time. You have managed to stay hidden for quite a while, but now your game is played - your race is run. My golem armies are sweeping across the entire Earth even as we speak - as you well know. Soon the world will lie conquered at my feet, and you will join the buffoon as another of my defeated enemies!'

Kim almost felt a sensation of nostalgia as Monkey Fist continued to rant. 'You have nowhere left to run - nowhere to hide - and no one to protect you.' he laughed. 'The time has come to finish what we began at my manor! How fitting that Yamanouchi should be our final battleground.' He glanced aside at the Yono shrine, which still loomed beyond the walls outside the school. 'The very place where you thought you had seen the last of me shall instead become the site of _your_ ultimate defeat!'

Kim felt the thrill of battle coming to her and smiled as she stared back at him. 'If you're trying to _talk_ me into giving up, you'd better hire a new speech writer.' she said.

'And where is the rest of the mighty Yamanouchi School?' said Monkey Fist, looking back and forth. 'I suppose they've all fled like they did last time - leaving their beloved Sensei to defend the School alone. Let them cringe and snivel like cowards if they wish - once I have dealt with you I will find them no matter where they hide!'

'True courage cannot stay hidden.'

Monkey Fist paused, hearing the deep, resonant voice. Master Sensei stepped out from the main building, standing beside Kim. Yori silently joined him. There was a quiet rustling from all around, like the sound of many people rising from their chairs. Monkey Fist looked and saw that the battlements, the courtyard and even the roofs of the surrounding buildings were lined with dozens of black hooded ninja. The evening suddenly glittered with barbed light from swords, shuriken, arrows and other weapons held at the ready.

'Leave this place.' said Master Sensei. 'Or you are destined to return to the path of the Yono.'

'Empty words, you pompous fool.' Monkey Fist, and his stone eyes still seemed as if they were gleaming with malice. 'I was sent to walk that path by myself - but I have come back, and I am no longer alone.' He snapped his fingers, and the sound rang like a loud _crack_ through the evening air.

Through the shattered gates, people began filing into the courtyard. Grey and stiff, with emotionless faces, over forty golems flanked Monkey Fist, facing Kim and the Yamanouchi students.

'I _could_ defeat all of you by myself.' he said smugly. 'But I'm in a hurry - so I brought along some help to speed things along. I have a world to conquer after all, and once I finish with you I can get back to more important things - like designing my throne.'

Kim sniffed and shook her head. 'It's a good thing you're stronger, Monkey Fist.' she said. 'Otherwise you'd never be able to hold up that swelled head.'

'Joke if you will, Kim Possible.' Monkey Fist sneered. 'But that's all you _can_ do.' He raised his left arm. A thick metal band looped around his hand, which Kim knew was covering and protecting the _emet_ symbols branded behind his knuckles. 'Unlike our good friend Dr. Drakken, I _learn_ from my encounters.' he said. 'You squandered your only chance to break the golem enchantment at Go City. Ah, but you say you're not impressed with my speeches? Perhaps I should simply _show_ you.'

He turned his head, sweeping his gaze around at the surrounding ninja. 'Yamanouchi - _do your worst.'_ he shouted.

From all directions, a hail of knives and arrows whined through the air. But Monkey Fist stood smiling with his arms calmly folded. Kunai, shuriken, arrows and darts struck him and his golems from all around. The night was filled with the ringing of metal against stone.

But each blade turned against the petrified skin of Monkey Fist and his army. Darts rebounded, spearheads bent and snapped. And piles of spent missiles rose around the feet of the golems as weapons bounced off their stone bodies and fell harmlessly to the ground.

The army stood in the midst of a storm of blades. Nothing seemed to harm them, any more than raindrops on a stone hill. Monkey Fist smirked as he noted that the strikes were not random. All were aimed or focused on his left hand, and the left hands of his golems. He made no attempt to protect himself or his followers. They were already protected.

Each golem had a similar band of steel wrapped around their left hands. The metal was thicker and heavier than anything Sensei and his rabble could hope to penetrate. He almost felt guilty - it would be easy pickings. He would not let himself be distracted by any of Possible's tricks.

At last the attacks halted as the ninja reached for fresh arrows. 'You see?' Monkey Fist crowed. 'None of your attacks can touch me now. Let us see how you deal with _my_ power!' He focused his will, summoning his anger against Kim Possible and letting it rise within him. A yellow glow surrounded him, a blaze of light that arced from his body like electrical energy building to a point where it must leap to a new target.

He spread out his hands and the Yono's destructive energy roared across the courtyard. The ninja scattered, dashing and rolling out if its path. The attack plowed through two of the dorm buildings, splitting them in half and sending debris scattering in all directions.

Shuriken and kunai blades whistled back, but again rebounded from Monkey Fist's body like foam toys. His monkey-ish, cackling laughter rang through the school. '_Attack_!' he screamed, and his army surged forward in pursuit of the ninja. _'Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!'_

Kim activated her booster soles and sailed over the attacking golems, landing in front of Monkey Fist and charging at him. She struck at him and raised her shield, knocking him back slightly. 'Now that really _was _so the drama!' she said.

'Julius Caesar was a _dramatic_ play.' Monkey Fist sneered. 'So as you might say - _d'oy_.' He charged at her, and Kim raised her shield again. The bubble of energy kept Monkey Fist from reaching her, but he was pushing hard with his hands and the shield sparked and shuddered as the suit's power cells strove against his strength.

Monkey Fist grinned at her from outside the shield. 'Maintain that posture, Kim Possible.' he said. 'Once I've turned you to stone, I shall set you next to my throne and use you as a hat rack!' His eyes glowed yellow.

Kim flinched. _'Guess now I find out of the shield works against Yono power...'_ she thought. The twin beams struck the shield, but did not penetrate. Kim allowed herself a breath of relief as she saw Monkey Fist glaring. He kept pushing against the shield. The power of petrification was fueled by his hate, but it wasn't easy to maintain the levels of hatred he needed to unleash that power. He struggled to re-marshal his emotions while pushing against the shield. But once Kim saw the light fade from his eyes, she dropped the shield and twisted aside.

Monkey Fist lurched forward and fell on the ground, but was on his feet a second later, turning to face Kim. 'You can dodge as much as you want.' he hissed. 'But I only need to get hold of you _once_.' And with an angry snarl, he rushed at her again.

The Yamanouchi students, in the meantime, were doing their best against the attacking golems. The ninja were much faster and more agile than the petrified statues, and many of them had pole arms and bo staffs, which allowed them to fend off or trip the golems. But they could do nothing to stop them, and the ninja were accomplishing little beyond staying out of their reach.

As Kim and Monkey Fist battled, he focused his hatred again, firing yellow beams out of his eyes. As Kim spun and dived out of the way, one of the beams struck a Yamanouchi student. In a flash of yellow light, the ninja stood frozen and petrified. _'One down.'_ thought Monkey Fist. But his frustration gave way to anger as Kim continued to deftly avoid his attacks. And his anger triggered the power of destruction.

He sent another blast wave rolling across the ground. The beam nicked off of the edge of Kim's shield and deflected into the wall near the ruined gates, blasting a large section into shards. Kim skittered to the side, keeping herself oriented near the gates so any other stray blasts would not fire into the school grounds. 'I thought 'the ultimate monkey master' would have better aim!' she taunted.

Monkey Fist growled. 'Keeping me angry with your pathetic banter will only guarantee your destruction!' And his body glowed yellow, the energy leaping from his hands in another attack.

Kim used her booster soles to tumble out of the way. This was part of the plan they had made - to distract Monkey Fist and draw away his golems without endangering the Yamanouchi students. A large number of golems were now deep in the courtyard, still engaged against the ninja. Only a small number were still close to Monkey Fist. As the battle raged, a slender ninja dressed in black stole from shadow to shadow across the courtyard. She moved closer to Monkey Fist, with her hand raised....

Monkey Fist's attention was suddenly drawn away from Kim as he heard a yelp and a thud not far from where he stood. He turned his head and saw that a ninja had tripped and fallen to the ground just a few feet away. The ninja looked embarrassed, even behind her mask as she scrabbled back to her feet. He sneered at her. 'The quality of education at this school seems to have diminished.' he said. 'Perhaps you need some time with _my_ instructors.' He gestured, and a gang of five golems surrounded the ninja before she could scramble away.

Kim raced forward. 'Your fight is with _me_!' she shouted.

A cunning look was on Monkey Fist's face as he answered. 'Ah yes, I had nearly forgotten.' he said. 'An ever-present chink in the armor of any hero. You will fight relentlessly on your own. But if someone else is in danger, your resolve crumbles. Surrender, Kim Possible. Or _this_ unfortunate will be the one to feel my wrath!'

The ninja sniffed, bringing her hands together. 'Don't do me any favors, Donkey Face!' she said insolently, even as the golems seized her.

'That's _Monkey_ _Fist_.' he said with a perilously cold voice. 'But as you wish. For your first lesson - I shall teach you some _manners_.' He nodded, and his golem soldiers dog-piled her. Kim rushed forward with a shout, but Monkey Fist blocked her way. 'Now, now.' he smirked. 'I thought you said your fight was with me.'

But Monkey Fist stared in surprise as the ninja girl stood up, sending the golems on top of her flying. She seized one by the wrist and went into a judo toss that sent the golem crashing into a wall nearly fifteen yards away.

'Interesting.' said Monkey Fist, looking more closely at her. The girl's fighting style wasn't nearly as graceful or smooth as the other ninja, neither did it have the determination and skill of Kim Possible's attacks. He saw her outfit was different as well. She didn't have the taped arms and legs of the other students. Instead she had on what looked like a pair of moccasins, brown leather leggings and sleeves, and there was a roll of cloth tied up and tucked at the small of her back. 'You're not one of the Yamanouchi brats.' he growled. 'Who are you?'

_**Part IV:  
Ninjella Rising**_

The girl pushed one hand palm outward, her ponytail of blonde hair whipping about. 'I'm glad you asked!' she shouted, then she went into a ridiculous dance, hopping on one leg and using the momentum to scoot from side to side. 'I am the terror that flaps in the night!' she cried. 'I am the gunk that just won't scrub off your frying pan! I sing songs of victory that make my enemies cry rivers of defeat! I am... the all-powerful _Ninjella_!' she ended her dance, planting her feet firmly with her arms raised. The entire battle seemed to pause as Monkey Fist, Kim, the ninja and even the golems stared. 'Yes!' she cried. 'I speak of none other than _myself_! Ha!'

There was dead silence as Monkey Fist glared at her disdainfully. Kim didn't watch much anime, but she knew enough about it to realize that if this sitch _were_ an anime, each of the students and even Master Sensei would probably have several purple lines of embarrassment popping up on their foreheads.

'"Ninjella", did you say?' said Monkey Fist at last. 'Well, _Ninjella_. I think there is something I should tell you.'

'Like _what_?' said the girl defiantly.

Monkey Fist clenched both hands tight. 'Empty showmanship...' he said, his voice starting low and dangerous, '...makes me _angry_!' he ended with a ringing shout. The mark of the Yono flared brightly on his hand, and a yellow glow surrounded his body.

'Look out...!' Kim yelled, but the blonde ninja had clapped both hands together and bowed her head. She appeared to be chanting.

The beam of yellow light screamed past, slamming into Ninjella. She was blasted back, pushed by the force of the Yono's destructive power, and smashed into the courtyard wall. The stone split apart, and a wide section of the rampart crumbled.

Monkey Fist smirked with grim satisfaction as he turned back to Kim. 'Tell the rest of your ninja friends to surrender.' he said. 'Or they will suffer the same fate as...' But he stopped as he looked back at the deep, circular depression of cracks in the shattered courtyard wall.

The ninja girl was still there, getting up slowly to her feet. Her black outfit was torn and shredded, but she appeared unharmed. She gripped her _gi_, and with a swift wrench she flung the ninja garb aside. Beneath it she wore another outfit of brown animal skins and cloth. The roll at the small of her back unfurled, becoming the back of a long, robe-like coat. Two eagle feathers hung from her left ear as her mask fell away and her blonde hair fell free from its ponytail. 'Is... that all you got?' she said, though her voice sounded tired as if she'd lifted a heavy weight.

Monkey Fist stared. 'Well well.' he said quietly. 'It seems the night is destined to be _full_ of surprises. Miss Fatigable, I presume?'

'That's right, _jerkface_.' Rhonda growled. 'Rhonda's back and its payback time!'

Monkey Fist's voice went deadly cold. 'If you have returned,' he said. 'It means _he_ must have returned as well.'

'If you mean Ron, you're right.' said Kim, circling around until she and Rhonda were close together.

Monkey Fist's face contracted in anger. 'I should have known _Sskipoyiwa_'s power wouldn't be enough to permanently rid the world of someone that annoying!' he said, gritting his teeth. 'Where is he? I wish to make a clean job of things by turning you _all_ into stone!'

'He'll be back soon enough.' said Kim. 'He's just on his way to England so he can blow up your toy Jammer!'

And for the first time since arriving at the school, Monkey Fist felt alarmed. Did they really know where the lair was? If the buffoon was as clumsy and lucky as he remembered, then it was a real possibility that the Jammer might be destroyed. That would free world communications, as well as crippling their ability to petrify more cities. And if Maze was defeated and captured.... 'How irksome.' he said. 'This means I must speed things up here even faster so I can go back and deal with your boyfriend! And as for you Ms. Fatigable, you'll regret siding with the heroes!'

'Hey, you're the one who...' Rhonda sputtered. But Monkey Fist's eyes were glowing brightly.

'Watch it!' Kim shouted, and she dove to the side, pulling Rhonda with her as another petrification beam shot past them.

Rhonda yelped and hopped as she ran behind Kim, with bursts of Yono power sailing past them. They jumped and dived over a pile of bricks and stones made by the rubble of the ruined wall. A flash of yellow light illuminated the rocks, but they were untouched. Another blast came, and then another, but they remained protected behind the broken stones.

'What was with the intro?' Kim snapped. 'You were supposed to do a _sneak attack_ and hit him with the Spirit Strike when he wasn't looking!'

'Sorry.' said Rhonda, looking flustered. 'But Chief Sakituya said I should do what comes naturally - and you have to admit, that 'who are you' was a perfect setup!'

Another blast came, only this one tore apart the rubble, forming a gash between Kim and Rhonda. Monkey Fist had used the power of destruction again. They rolled to the side, with Rhonda cringing behind her now-smaller pile of rocks. 'Now what?' she wailed. 'I'll never get a clean shot like this!'

'I've still got a couple of tricks left, thanks to Wade.' Kim said. 'But call Rueful - I'll need your help.' Rhonda nodded, fishing a silent whistle from her necklace.

Monkey Fist re-focused his anger, preparing to unleash another destructive blast. Just as he felt the Yono's power rising, he saw a flash of white and blue darting out from behind one of the piles of rubble. _'No, Kim Possible.'_ he thought. _'I will not be distracted from the real threat!'_ And with a blinding flash, he sent another wave of destructive power at the other pile of bricks, where he was sure Rhonda was hiding.

The blast turned the stones to powder, and a cloud of dust rose, filling the area with a haze that fogged the courtyard. Monkey Fist rushed forward, his fist raised, in case the blast hadn't finished Rhonda. He reached the mass of pulverized rock, but could not see anyone. As the dust settled, he saw behind the rocks there was a dark spot on the ground, which he realized was a _hole._

The ground beneath him trembled. There was a roar like a bear, and with a flash of blue light, Rhonda burst out from the ground beneath Monkey Fist. He tumbled in the air, landing heavily on the ground next to the hole he had blasted in the outer wall. He surged back to his feet, his fists clenched. 'You think that makes you _clever_?' he shouted. 'That you actually managed to pull off such a hackneyed trick as hiding in a foxhole....'

He paused, for there was a soft _thud_, and he saw a gray metal ball lying on the ground at his feet, which had fallen from above. He looked up and saw a long-tailed weasel waving down at him with a chittering laugh. There was a loud _pop_, and Monkey Fist was splattered with a thin layer of white as the Moo Goo grenade exploded.

'Way to go Rueful!' Rhonda shouted. Monkey Fist was flailing as the Moo Goo expanded, encasing him in a cocoon of foam. She brought her hands together, chanting and concentrating with all her might.

_ Omahkkiaayowa...  
Nitsiinihkatsimatsiiwa...!_

Monkey Fist stopped struggling as the foam covered him from head to toe, blotting out all sound and vision. He knew he couldn't fight his way out with strength alone. He imagined Kim's face in his mind, using the image to build up his anger again. As the anger increased, he felt the Yono's power rising within him.

Kim saw the balloon of Moo Goo bubbling as a core of yellow light seemed to grow within it. Then with a shout of rage, the foam was blasted apart and Monkey Fist emerged. His angry face made him seem almost feral as he got his bearings, looking around for someone to attack.

But Rhonda was bearing down on him, her hand drawn behind her, each finger surrounded with blue light. Her voice came in a shout that rose above even the din of the surrounding battles.

_'Spirit Strike..!'_

Having been on the receiving end of one of Rhonda's attacks, Kim thought the sight was even more impressive when she didn't have to worry about dodging it. As Rhonda swung her arm at Monkey Fist, there was a sound like a thunderclap and five sickles of light spread from her fingertips. Monkey Fist was only two feet away from Rhonda as the Spirit Strike swept in an arc straight through his chest. He reeled backwards, falling against the wall behind him. He looked down at his body, and across his torso he saw a wide section that was no longer gray or stony. He felt the cold night air against his skin, and saw pale flesh beneath the folds of his outfit.

The fighting all around paused. The Yamanouchi students and even the golems seemed to hesitate, watching with anticipation to see what the result would be.

Kim looked at him in wild hope - it seemed to have worked. The sections of Monkey Fist's body which had been touched by Rhonda's attack seemed to have returned to normal. If she could hit him again before he recovered, they stood a chance of returning him completely to flesh and blood.

Rhonda also saw it, and she started chanting again, getting ready for another strike. Then there was a flash of yellow that came from Monkey Fist's left hand. The mark of the Yono was flaring brightly. His stone skin spread out from the parts of his body that were still covered, smothering and covering his chest until his whole body was stone again.

Monkey Fist glared at Rhonda in surprise, but also relief. 'A nice try.' he said. '_Sskipoyiwa_ warned that your powers were dangerous to me, but it seems I cannot be forced off the path of the Yono so easily.' He turned to Kim. 'So you thought to make me flesh again - to weaken me? Well, there is still hope for your plan.' he said with a smug grin. 'Just take my hand, and agree to walk the Yono's path in my place.'

'Not gonna happen.' said Kim, glaring.

'Then it's back to doing this the _hard_ way.' Monkey Fist's body glowed, another beam of yellow lashed out.

Kim dodged, tumbling out of the way. 'Hard way?' she said. 'That was easy!'

But Monkey Fist was smirking. 'I wasn't aiming for _you_.' Kim looked behind her with a gasp. The destructive beam plowed into the multi-storied wing of one of the buildings, and it began to collapse. A number of Yamanouchi ninja were below the building, still occupied in battling the golems.

Kim used her booster soles and sailed up and over, landing in the midst of the fighting. She raised her shield and covered them just as a rain of cornice and stones fell down on them with a mighty crash.

Rhonda saw Kim and the ninja disappear under a cloud of rocks and dust, and she brought her hands together, chanting again. But Monkey Fist seemed to zoom in out of nowhere, propelled by his levitation. His hands gripped Rhonda's and pulled them apart.

'_Sskipoyiwa_ told me everything I need to know about your powers.' he said. 'You can't use your strike if I can bind your hands and stop you from speaking!'

Rhonda grimaced, remembering how Monkey Fist had covered her mouth back in the UNIT labs before they banished her. 'Looks like I'm as strong as you, though.' she said, and indeed they were both quivering in place as if playing a high-intensity game of Mercy. 'You can't trash the school and fight me at the same time!'

'Well observed.' Monkey Fist growled. 'But it does put you in a perfect position for _this_..!' And Rhonda blanched as his eyes glowed yellow. He was holding her in place, with only a foot or two between their faces, and there was no way she could dodge if he used the power of petrification.

Just as the beams shot out of his eyes, a brown blur tumbled between them. Rhonda wrenched free and pushed hard, falling backwards while Monkey Fist stumbled. There was a thud, and Rhonda looked down to see a small figure lying on the ground next to her.

_'Rueful_!' she screamed, but the weasel didn't answer. Rueful's petrified body still seemed graceful and lithe as he was frozen while leaping between Monkey Fist and his mistress. Rhonda got to her feet, turning in rage on Monkey Fist. The birthmark on her left shoulder suddenly blazed like a star.

Monkey Fist righted himself. Maze had told him about Rhonda's strength, but he was still surprised that she had broken free from his grip. He concentrated again, marshalling his hatred and preparing to unleash the Yono's power. He heard a female scream, but it seemed somehow mingled with another sound, like a roaring bear.

Rhonda was thundering towards him, and it seemed to Monkey Fist that he saw another figure behind her, the ghostly shade of another girl he didn't recognize. It was a beautiful Indian woman with an identical bear paw mark on her arm. Their movements and posture matched perfectly as Rhonda's fist connected solidly into Monkey Fist's chest.

Kim had lowered her shield soon after the outer face of the building had collapsed. There had not been enough rubble to actually bury them. She and the ninja quickly pushed and heaved the stones away to rejoin the fight. But Kim heard a distant scream and a roar, and then there was a thunderous blast like someone had set off a bomb. She could feel a powerful shockwave pushing through her, and saw Monkey Fist's body sailing through the air. He slammed into another section of the outer wall and blasted through it as if it were made of chalk.

Through the haze of the battle, Kim ran back to Rhonda's side. She was on her knees, cradling something in her hands. 'That was some punch.' Kim said, but Rhonda was crying.

'He hit Rueful..' she sobbed. 'Just like he did with Grimm...'

'We can fix him!' said Kim, though she wasn't really quite sure. 'We just have to stop Monkey Fist!'

'But the Spirit Strike didn't work on him!' she wailed. 'You saw it - that Yono thingy is keeping him petrified!'

'We'll figure something out!' Kim shouted. 'He'll be back any second, and if he petrifies you...'

Rhonda nodded, but she wouldn't let go of Rueful. She carried him towards the center of the courtyard, where Sensei and the Yamanouchi students were fighting off the attacking golems.

'Things go ill, Kim Possible.' said the ninja master. 'The longer this battle goes on, the greater the advantage to Monkey Fist. His golems do not tire, and we cannot hold them off much longer.'

Kim nodded, looking around at the golems and a pair of petrified ninja. Then her eye caught something strange. There was a short, rotund, bearded man in the midst of the ninja, cowering against the base of the statue almost next to her.

'Who are you?' she asked.

The man looked like he was desperately searching for an opening in the attacking golems so he could flee, but he answered in a shaky voice. 'That Monkey Fist blackguard brought me here!' he said in a British accent. 'Don't let him take me again!'

Kim's mouth fell open. 'How come you're not stone?'

'I don't even know for sure how I _became_ stone in the first place!' he shouted. 'But that blonde girl hit me with some kind of light just now, and....' he faltered, his skin going pale as the golems continued pushing closer.

Kim understood at once. 'Stay down!' she said. 'We'll do what we can to protect you!' She turned to Rhonda, who had been listening.

'I must have grazed him when I hit Monkey Fist!' said Rhonda, biting her fingers.

'Your power broke the petrification! You have to hit all the golems directly!'

'But they're everywhere! How can I hit them all...?'

'Can you do a ballerina spin?'

'What?' Rhonda said. 'No - I don't do 'ballerina'!'

'We'll help you!' Kim shouted. 'Get your strike ready and when I give the signal, jump and _spin_ for all you're worth!' Rhonda nodded and gently set Rueful's petrified body down on the pedestal of Toshimiru's statue. Kim looked at Master Sensei, who nodded and turned to Yori. Yori also nodded, and stood so that Rhonda was between Kim and herself.

_**Part V:  
The Yono Unleashed**_

Monkey Fist had felt no actual pain when Rhonda had struck him. But he had been surprised by the sheer force of the blow. He clutched at the ground as he flew through the wall, leaving deep gouges in the stony earth. He barely managed to avoid falling off the edge of a cliff over a dozen yards away from the outer wall. _'It seems I'm not the only one who can use anger to become stronger.'_ he thought.

He gathered his inner focus, using the power of levitation, and shot across the ground. He circled back towards the main entrance, avoiding the large hole in the outer wall, not wanting to go back in through the hole where they might have prepared a counter-attack.

When he passed through the broken gates, he saw his golems had the Yamanouchi students surrounded. The ninja were hemmed in around the statue of Toshimiru, desperately fending off their attackers. Sensei was there as well, and he appeared to be concentrating, his body surrounded by the spherical glow that he used when meditating and levitating.

From the shadowed concealment of one the dorm rooms, Chief Sakituya nodded silently as he saw Rhonda chanting, and the bear mark on her arm was glowing again. Sensei clapped his hands together, and the glowing sphere slid from himself to Rhonda.

_'Go!'_ Kim shouted.

Rhonda leaped and spun as best she could while still chanting. Kim and Yori braced her and leaped, adding their own strength. They pushed hard and flipped backwards, spinning her even faster.

Besides feeling like she was about to throw up on the teacup ride at Disneyland, Rhonda also felt a strange sensation of _guidance_. She let her arms spread straight out, and as she hit the ground again, she somehow knew what to say and do.

_'Spirit Wave!!'_

'Everybody down!' Kim shouted, and she threw herself to the ground.

There was an explosive clap like thunder, and from both of Rhonda's arms, white light was spreading out. Not in curved sickles, but in a glowing ring. It swept through the entire courtyard like a white ripple through a shining pond. It passed through golems, buildings and even the outer wall with a roar like a passing train.

Monkey Fist was so surprised that he forgot to duck, and again he felt cold air as the spirit wave slashed through him. The mark of the Yono glowed and his stone skin reformed, covering the broad stripe that was left across his chest by the attack. Rhonda slumped to the ground, looking exhausted, and Monkey Fist gestured wildly to his golems. 'Take them - take them _now_!' he shouted.

But none of them moved. Instead, there were flashes of yellow light that rippled across each statue. And the residents of Graniton and Basalton backed away from the Yamanouchi students, squeezing their hands free of the steel bands. 'Do not harm them!' Sensei bellowed. 'They are no longer our enemies.'

'Woo hoo!' Rhonda shouted, jumping back to her feet. 'Bear power _rules_!' At that moment, several of the dorm buildings, and the pedestal which held up the statue of Toshimiru all fell over. The Spirit Wave had sliced through them, and loud thumps and bangs echoed through the courtyard. 'Oops. Sorry.' she ended lamely.

Monkey Fist stared in amazement. With one move, they had freed his entire army, making him the lone attacker. _'Well - I said I could defeat them myself.'_ he thought angrily. _'They're really making me put my money where my mouth is.'_ The Yamanouchi ninja were clustered more closely together, making for an easier target. Another destructive blast would certainly take out a large number. It would mean taking out a number of his slaves as well, but it was a small price to pay in exchange for destroying Kim Possible. He focused his anger, letting it build stronger and stronger. The light of the Yono's power steadily grew, becoming a shimmering flame...

Kim was hurriedly trying to usher the freed golems into following the Yamanouchi students. Master Sensei had quickly ordered a squad of ninja to gather the former golems and hurry them to the back of the school, to somewhere safer. Kim spared a second or two to wonder how exactly Monkey Fist's power and Rhonda's power were clashing.

Grimm's petrification has been broken when she had struck out the _emet_ golem symbols on his hand. But Rhonda's strike had done so without touching the _emet _symbols. Monkey Fist had nearly been freed from his own petrification after he had been hit. But the Yono's power had pulled him back in. There was something else about the Yono's curse that the Spirit Strike couldn't overcome. Maybe Monkey Fist was right, and the only way to break the Yono's curse was for someone else to agree to take his place.

Back when they had cured Grimm, Jade had said that Maze's golem spell and the Yono's power of petrification seemed to depend on one another once the enchantments were sealed. If Rhonda's power could break the petrification, then the golem enchantment obviously wouldn't work on someone who was flesh and blood....

_'I need Wade to come up with a math equation that lays all this out - it's too confusing.'_ Kim thought. At that instant, she saw a light at the further end of the courtyard near the wrecked gates. Monkey Fist was there, and his entire body was blazing with power.

Kim had no time to think, she merely reacted. She drew all the power from her suit and funneled it into the shield, boosting the field of effect. In an instant the shield expanded, but instead of using it to cover multiple persons, she used it to push everyone who was near her across the courtyard. Then she dropped the shield and dived away.

The attack screamed through their midst, but struck no one. Instead it plowed through the wall, across the grounds, and slammed straight into the Yono shrine. The grotesque structure split down the middle like an apple hit by an axe. Stone decorations, outcroppings and masonry flew in all directions with a deafening roar.

Monkey Fist stood still, dumfounded by his blunder while ninja, former golems and Kim got back to their feet. 'Way to go, genius!' Rhonda taunted, leaning out from behind the fallen statue of Toshimiru. 'You fragged your own house!'

'He did the same thing back in England.' said Kim with a faint smile, remembering her experience at Monkey Fist's manor.

'Enough of this!' Monkey Fist shouted, and his voice no longer sounded suave, arrogant or smooth. It was as harsh and grating as stone, and his face was a mask of both anger and hate. 'It is time to show you why the Yono is called the _destroyer_!!' His body flared like a yellow star, his eyes blazed and his face was a twisted mask of rage. His voice rose to a monkey-ish shriek. _'I.... hate... all of you!!!'_

He turned this way and that, sending bursts of light from his eyes criss-crossing through the grounds. Several ninja were caught, and stood petrified in their attempts to dodge. Some of the freed citizens of Graniton and Basalton were turned to stone once again. Yori was struck in mid-leap as she tumbled and flipped through a maze of attacks. She landed on the ground with a rough thud.

Kim dove in front of Rhonda, who fell backwards behind the Toshimiru statue again. Her shield turned a pair of blasts away, but she felt it shudder from the impact. The stunt she had pulled when pushing everyone out of the way of Monkey Fist's attack had put a severe strain on the power cells.

'I'll turn all of you to stone and reduce your precious school to _rubble_!' Monkey Fist screamed. He rose slowly into the air, looking almost just like the Yono had when it had first attacked the Yamanouchi School.

Monkey Fist didn't seem to be targeting anyone specific anymore. In his blind rage, he lashed out at everything around him, sending petrification beams and destructive blasts all around. And unlike on previous occasions, he didn't seem to be getting tired from the excessive use of his powers. He had either used it so much that he had grown accustomed to it, or his anger was lending him endurance, allowing him to use the Yono's power without relenting.

Kim rolled behind the fallen statue of Toshimiru. 'He'll bring down the whole school!' Kim shouted to Rhonda. 'Can you punch him again like you did a few seconds ago?'

'How?' Rhonda shouted back. 'He's gone all... _floatey_! He'd stone me before I could get half-way across the court!'

'And the Spirit Strike isn't working on him.' Kim muttered.

'You're the one with the funky suit!' Rhonda said, 'Doesn't it turn into a cannon or anything?'

'Cannon? What kind of hero do you think I am?'

'A pretty _weak_ one I guess!' Rhonda shot back. 'You mean you go into all these sitches _without_ any weapons? You should call it the 'lame-o defense suit', not a _battle_-suit!'

'It's got one move that still might work.' Kim said. 'But I'll need a distraction....'

'One distraction comin' riiiiight up!' Rhonda. She brought her hands together and began repeating a low chant, while the mark on her arm glowed blue.

_ Omahkkiaayowa,  
Nitohpoksiiyikitapiiyi!_

She gripped the pedestal of Toshimiru's statue, then with a great heave, she lifted it, using it as both a shield and a weapon, she charged forward. Kim nodded and turned on her stealth mode, darting off to the side and starting to circle around behind Monkey Fist.

Even in his berserk state, Monkey Fist couldn't fail to notice the statue coming at him. His anger kindled, flicking almost easily in another attack that blasted the statue apart. Rhonda stumbled and tripped under the scattered debris, landing nearly in front of Monkey Fist's floating form. She was out in the open with no protection, and waved feebly up at him with a weak smile.

'You're finished, Bear Priestess!' he screamed. Then a large rock knocked hard into the back of his head. He didn't feel pain, rather only the force of the impact, but the taunting voice struck him even harder.

'Save it for me, _Monty_.' Kim shouted.

Rotating slowly in mid-air, Monkey Fist glared down at Kim. 'I always reserve my best for _you_.' he hissed. And holding out his hands, he sent another wave of destruction rolling across the ground towards her.

Kim side-stepped and quickly activated her hand module. She wasn't sure exactly what would happen, but since her shield had repelled the petrification beams, she hoped the Yono's energy would also be affected by the hand module. As the destructive blast ripped by next to her, she used the module and scooped away some of the energy. When she pulled her hand back, she was surprised to see that it had worked. She hadn't stopped the beam, but the module now contained a sphere of swirling yellow light.

She pivoted, swung, and hurled the energy back towards Monkey Fist. He looked surprised and annoyed when the blast hit him in the chest as he levitated, sending him flying backwards. He tumbled, crashed and rolled for several seconds before coming to a stop.

He hoisted himself groggily to his elbows. While Kim's maneuver was as characteristically irritating as they often were, he was more impressed by his own power. _'It seems I pack quite the whallop.'_ he thought grudgingly, sitting up and taking stock of his surroundings. He had landed inside what looked like an ancient dojo. He was about to levitate up and charge back into battle when he realized he was not alone.

Looking quickly to the side, he saw the figure of a monkey swathed in a red robe with gold trim standing by his side. It was looking down at him, shaking his head and tutting his lips. 'And _you_ wanna be my master?' said the strange simian figure. Then it lashed out with a furry foot.

Kim saw Monkey Fist's body flying out of Toshimiru's dojo as if he had been launched by a catapult. She heard what sounded like a shrill monkey screech and saw a blue light fading from inside the dojo. She smiled knowingly. '_Knew he couldn't resist getting one lick in.'_ she thought.

Monkey Fist plowed into a section of the outer wall that was still standing. There was a shower of dust and rock chips and Kim saw Monkey Fist's legs sticking ridiculously out from the wall, kicking and flailing as he struggled to free himself.

'We have to finish this!' Kim shouted, pulling Rhonda up to her feet.

'But how?' she said. 'The Spirit Strike isn't working! I wish Grimm and Ron were here - we sure could use a hand...'

Kim blinked, a new idea locking into place in her mind. It was exactly the kind of idea that she might have gotten from one of Ron's off-handed comments. 'Did you say... a _hand_?'

Rhonda nodded, her face blank with confusion. Then understanding broke across her face, and both of them smiled and nodded.

_**Part VI:  
The Path of the Yono**_

Monkey Fist wrenched himself from the wall, sending plaster and bricks tumbling to the ground. As he righted himself he saw Kim Possible leaping up at him, her arm cocked back in a fist, her voice raised in a loud shout.

_'Oh please...' _Monkey Fist thought smugly, and he raised his arms to block. She couldn't hope to harm him at all and he braced himself, wondering with amusement if she would break any bones in her hand when she struck him.

Kim was barely a foot or two away from him and their eyes met. Kim suddenly had a faint smile on her lips. Monkey Fist glared back at her. Then Kim twisted and spun to the side, flipping and tumbling out of the way.

Rhonda had been behind her, and she was bringing her own arm down in a slashing motion. Her fingertips were surmounted with a blue glow...

_'Spirit strike!'_

Monkey Fist had no time to dodge as five sickles of white light spread out and swept through him. He fell back against the wall with a shout as a roar like a freight train sounded all around him. The stones of the wall were torn apart behind him with deep slashing grooves in them.

He lowered his arms, looking down as Rhonda stopped in front of him. There were slashes in his body, and his flesh showed beneath them. But once again the mark of the Yono was glowing, and the marks where the spirit strike had removed his stone skin were being covered with rough gray stone.

He smiled with satisfaction, staring back at Rhonda. 'You don't learn any faster than the buffoon.' he said smugly. 'Can't you see that your attack is useless against...' But as he raised his hands back to a ready position, he saw the metal covering around his left hand sliding off. It fell ringing onto the ground in two pieces.

His face turned blank as he saw the Hebrew letters underneath the band were glowing. The marks were now marred by a thick slashing cut left by the spirit strike.

'No...' he said quietly. '_No!!'_ He reached out towards Rhonda, trying to seize her. But even as he did so, he felt his body stiffening, growing rigid. The mark of the Yono flared brightly once again...

_With the golem enchantment on Monkey Fist broken, the Yono's curse returned to full effect. Monkey Fist's will, which had exercised the Yono's power, was subdued. And across the entire world, golems stopped suddenly in their tracks. Flashes of yellow light rippled across each one of Monkey Fist's petrified victims, and they became flesh and blood once again. _

_ The tumult and battle in cities across the US, Europe, Asia, South America, Africa and all other nations came to an abrupt halt as the Yono's power broke with Monkey Fist's return to petrified dormancy. There was a worldwide silence for several seconds as petrified victims halted their rampages, blinking and looking around as if they had all awakened from a shared nightmare. Without the Yono's power to keep the people petrified, the golem symbols marked on the backs of their hands no longer had any effect on them...._

In Washington DC, Mr. Probable was still desperately trying to prevent the invading golems from reaching the city. But even when many of the golems had suddenly halted a short while ago, their weapons were still unable to harm the remaining attackers. Their march continued drawing closer to the defending ranks of soldiers.

Until a shout rose from the soldiers nearest to him. Many of them were pointing towards the approaching golem troops, and Mr. Probable saw a strange yellow light that seemed to flash briefly on each golem. The attackers halted and scattered in disarray. The soldiers raised their weapons, seeing the enemy's hesitation.

'Hold your fire - _Hold your fire_!!' Mr. Probable bellowed into a bullhorn. He looked through his binoculars. The attacking forces were no longer gray and stony in appearance - they were flesh colored. Many of them appeared frightened and confused, retreating the way they had come, or taking cover behind whatever they could find on the roads and fields.

He called out to the surrounding troops. 'Stand down men - it's over!'

The troops looked at him questioningly. After all that time of being attacked, they seemed hesitant to believe that it could be over so quickly. But as they saw the enemy was no longer advancing, celebratory cheers and shouts began to ripple through their ranks.

Mr. Probable turned to his radio man. 'Get on the horn to all our other communication posts around the country as fast as you can.' he said. 'Order the troops to stand down and not to attack. If they do, they won't be hitting enemy targets anymore, they'll be attacking innocent civilians.' The radio man nodded, and hastened to obey.

Mr. Probable allowed himself a quiet sigh of relief. If what his son had told him before he left was true, then it was all over. The Diablo robot attacks had halted nearly as quickly when Dr. Drakken had been defeated, and since then, military forces had established a workable procedure to make sure that order was restored as quickly as possible. They had to make sure that the troops transitioned from defense to cleanup. The major threat was over, and what remained was mostly procedural. They would have to make sure no scofflaws tried to take advantage of the confusion once the world realized that the golem menace was over.

His radio man called out. 'Sir - I think the enemy's jamming device is offline! There's a distress call from the UN building in New York...'

Mr. Probable leaned in to look at the small screen on the radio man's communicator. Whoever had sent in the distress call was no longer there. All they could see was a mass of people in suits and various kinds of dignitary robes. They were all pointing wildly around at each other, shouting and shaking their fingers.

'Raise communication with any troops you can in the New York area.' said Mr. Probable. 'Have them help the governor with any cleanup efforts they need.'

'Should we send anyone to the UN building?'

'No.' said Mr. Probable, shaking his head. 'They're fine.'

'Fine?' said the soldier. 'It looks like all they're doing is standing around arguing - they're not accomplishing anything.'

'Yes.' Mr. Probable nodded. 'They're completely back to normal.' The radio man looked confused, but Mr. Probable sighed and adjusted his collar. 'Let's get to work, soldier.' he said. 'There's a lot of frightened people out there that Monkey Fist used for his scheme. We need to round them up, and get them back to their homes.'

He sat down in his jeep, and at Mr. Probable's gesture, the radio man set his equipment down, took the wheel and they drove off to re-organize the troops.

At Yamanouchi, Kim stood up from where she had landed after rolling out of the way. There was a flash of light and a bear-like roar. She heard Monkey Fist's cry, and turned to see Rhonda standing in front of Monkey Fist. Rhonda was shaking and panting, and she flopped onto the ground on her backside, looking exhausted.

Monkey Fist remained still. His left hand was smoking, and Kim could see the _emet_ symbols had been destroyed. Only the mark of the Yono was still visible. It glowed yellow for a moment, then the light faded and the symbol disappeared. By destiny or chance, it seemed to Kim that Monkey Fist had been frozen in the same posture he had been in when he first started walking the path of the Yono - his face angry, his mouth opened as if shouting, his hands raised.

She put her hand on Rhonda's shoulder. 'The plan worked.' said Kim. 'He was distracted enough by me that he didn't see you were the one we were setting up for the attack.'

'Woo hoo.' said Rhonda weakly, pumping one fist half-heartedly in the air.

They both looked up as they heard scattered clapping and cheers. The Yamanouchi students and Master Sensei were surrounding them - and more besides. All of the golem attackers were restored to flesh and blood, and were lending their own voices and applause to the throng. Yori and Sensei bowed to Kim, while the more exuberant students raised their weapons high with loud shouts.

The freed residents of Graniton and Basalton seemed torn by a mixture of emotions. Their enslavement was finally over, and the one who had enslaved them was now defeated. They looked like they weren't sure how to feel.

'Good show, Ms. Possible!' shouted one.

'Ruddy brilliant!' shouted another. 'You gave that blighter exactly what he deserved!'

'We can go home now!' said a tearful woman. 'Thank you Ms. Possible!'

'Oh dear...' said the old woman with the cane. 'Now my arthritis is back...'

And laughter swept through the whole assembly - the relieved, joyful laughter of the victorious. As Kim was mobbed by ninja and former golems, shaking her hand, patting her on the back, she turned her head to Toshimiru's dojo. Just visible inside the shadow of the doorway, she saw the short, hunched figure of the Mystical Monkey. He looked down at her, smiled, nodded his head, and then disappeared.

Rhonda had been pulled to her feet, and was being run through her own gauntlet of handshakes and pats on the shoulder. It felt strange, because she'd spent so long working in secret, slinking in the shadows with Grimm, and laboring hard to make sure no one ever found out anything they did in their mercenary work. One of the women actually hugged her, sobbing her thanks into her shoulder. A strange feeling came over her, looking into the grateful, thankful faces of the former golems. It was a feeling of warmth that seemed to well from deep inside, and she decided she _liked_ it.

Chief Sakituya stood off to the side, smiling at them quietly. He looked up to the night sky, and even the stars seemed to be glittering more brightly in celebration. _'She grows stronger, Great Bear Spirit.' _ he thought. _'And not only in power. Her heart is also stronger because of what she has endured. I think soon... she will be ready.'_

A brown, furry streak zipped in from the side and leaped into Rhonda's arms. 'Rueful, you're OK!' she squealed. 'You were so brave, thank you...' From Rhonda's arms, Rueful's head turned to Monkey Fist and he stuck out his tongue with a wet sounding raspberry.

Above the din and cheering, Rhonda heard a tinny beeping from her hip pouch. Quickly, she ducked out from among the crowd and retreated into the shadows beside one of the dorm buildings that was still standing. She took out her communicator, habitually looking around to make sure no one else was close. Grimm had trained everyone on the team to be careful about where and how they spoke over communicators. Most of the ninja were still gathered around Kim Possible, celebrating the victory. But when Rhonda activated her communicator, it was in a whisper of suppressed excitement.

'Grimm! Is it you? Are you all right?'

Grimm's face appeared on the screen. His bike helmet was on and she recognized the view of the dashboard cam from the _Ksikkihkíni_. It looked like he was in flight. 'It's me.' he said. 'We just got back to the bike and we're on our way to Heathrow. We haven't been able to get through to you until now. It looks like Wade, Jade and Dad have gotten satellite comm back to a bare-bones minimum. What's happening over there?'

'It's... it's _over_.' she said, though she could hardly believe it. After all those weeks banished in the spirit world, after all the waiting, angst and uncertainty, it was finally over. 'We beat Monkey Fist! He's just a statue again - and it looks like all the golems he brought with him have turned back into normal people.'

'I knew you could do it, baby.' said Grimm, and there was pride in his smirk. 'That ought to drive the point home to the people on our client list - _don't_ double-cross Team Probable! You did great!'

'How about you?' said Rhonda. 'Did you get Maze? Did you stop him?'

Grimm hesitated. 'I won't say over communicator.' he said. 'But we accomplished our mission. Tell Possible the Jammer's wrecked and the lair is shut down. We'll be on our way back to Yamanouchi as soon as we get to the jet.'

'We?' said Rhonda. 'Does that mean Ron's OK?' Rhonda said, trying to keep the worry out of her voice.

'He's fine.' said Grimm. He lowered his voice almost to a whisper that she could barely hear over the communicator. 'Keep an eye on Monkey Fist until we get there.' he said. 'They may try to question you, but be as tight-lipped as you can. Once we get back, we're putting Operation Clean Sweep into effect.'

_Coming Soon:  
Chapter 34_

_It's Not Over_

_ Author: You think the story ends here? You think there's just going to be one more chapter and then everything wraps up in a neat little package with the words 'The End' and that's it? Nooooo. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. The Ultra Atmospheric Jammers may be wrecked. The lair may be destroyed. Monkey Fist may be back on the path of the Yono. The golem attacks may be stopped and all their petrified victims may be freed. But the story is definitely not over!_

_ Sometimes the aftermath can be worse than the storm itself, and the aftermath is only just beginning! Maze is still on the loose. There's a lot of damage to clean up. And now that Maze and Monkey Fist have been defeated, does it mean that Team Probable are reverting back to their old tricks? What is 'Operation Clean Sweep'? All these answers and more are coming soon!_


	35. Ch 34: Operation Clean Sweep

A Friend In Darkness  
All Things Probable 3  
A Kim Possible Fanfiction  
by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and its affiliates, etc. etc.

Chapter 34  
_Operation Clean Sweep_

_Dedicated to the memory of beloved KP fanfiction writer, 'cpneb', who was Team Probable's very first review...  
You will be missed  
_

_**Part I:  
Cleaning Up**_

Mr. Dr. Possible held his wife's hand, looking intently at the TV as news reports began. For some time, world communications had been totally shut down when the golem attacks began. Now satellite and phone systems were coming back, and the TV channels which had been showing nothing but static were winking back in one by one as reports on the worldwide events started flooding in.

He cycled through several channels while moving towards the local stations, and each of them, even the sports channels, were talking about the same thing. It was as if the fragmented words spoken by reporters from various networks were somehow linked together and forming a single report.

'World leaders have called for a moratorium on all talks and discussions until cleanup operations are finished...'

'...early reports indicate that damage done by the golem attackers was mostly superficial except in areas where larger statues were brought to life...'  
'...repair work is already beginning in major cities across the...'  
'...many being interviewed say these events are similar to the Diablo robot attacks...'  
'...similar operations are now being put underway which were used after the villainous Dr. Drakken used toy robots to...'  
'U.S. Politicians will soon issue a statement explaining what the role the military will be playing in...'  
'...Police and National Guard forces remind all persons, militia or civilian, that there is no longer any danger and are urged to use caution...'  
'...bizarre moving statues suddenly halted their attacks, very much like the Diablo robots which were shut down by global crime-fighter Kim Possible...'  
'...rumors are that teen heroine Kim Possible was the one...'  
'...Possible is said to have defeated the super-villain known as 'Monkey Fist' within days of his globally broadcast ultimatum...'  
'...Kim Possible being sought for interviews...'  
'...waiting for full communication to be restored so that it can be confirmed whether Kim Possible...'

Mr. Dr. Possible felt Mrs. Dr. Possible's hand tighten around his arm as he reached the local station. Jim and Tim leaned in as a shaky camera view focused on a disheveled, bleary-looking reporter with a crooked tie, an unbuttoned shirt collar and ruffled looking hair.

'..A.U. Dibble, MIDX News.' said Dibble, holding his microphone in one hand and trying to smooth out wrinkles in his shirt with the other. 'Reports are just coming in from Upperton and Lowerton. The statue attacks have indeed stopped. And the people who were petrified by Monkey Fist's strange weapon have returned to normal. Speculation is rampant, but most of the rumors say the reason for the sudden halt in the attacks is that the villainous Monkey Fist was defeated by his teenage foe, Kim Possible.'

Mr. Dr. Possible smiled. 'I knew it wouldn't be long, with our Kimmy-cub on the case!' he said proudly.

'Shhh!' said Mrs. Dr. Possible, snatching the remote and turning up the volume.

'Authorities in England have been tipped off that Monkey Fist's hideout was located among a series of mountains within the United Kingdom.' said Dibble. 'Agents of Global Justice were dispatched to the scene immediately, and have found several people who had been kidnapped by Monkey Fist and used as laborers to build his machines. None of them are reported to have been harmed, and some of them have already been questioned by Global Justice, and then released. One of the men, Mr. Ignacious Stone, agreed to a brief interview about their ordeal.'

The camera cut to an outdoor scene with mountains in the background, and a middle-aged man in simple brown clothes had a microphone in front of him. 'It was some blighter dressed up like an American Indian.' said Ignacious. 'But Kim Possible's sidekick - I don't know his name, the fellow with the blonde hair? Somehow he defeated Monkey Fist's partner. I thought we'd be stuck as statues in that cavern forever, but not long after they left - _poof!_ Suddenly we were all back to normal!'

'So you had no control over your actions after Monkey Fist turned you to stone?' said one reporter.

'Well if I had, I wouldn't have stuck around in that dank cave!' said Ignacious with a snort. 'Honestly - over two weeks doing nothing but working on those infernal machines. I'm just glad it's over!'

'And what will you do now?' said another reporter.

'Get home as quick as may be.' said Ignacious. 'I didn't get hungry or anything while I was there, but I must have missed a dozen tea times!' There was a ripple of laughter from the assembled reporters.

The camera cut back to Dibble. 'We've learned that the kidnap victims were from two small towns in England named Graniton and Basalton. Neither town was well known before. But as their residents were in the thick of things for weeks, no doubt they will be returning to their homes to find themselves the center of attention from a curious media...'

The reporters then started to re-hash things they had already said in more detail, and Mrs. Dr. Possible turned the volume back down. 'Does this mean that Kim will be coming home soon?' she said.

'I hope so.' said Mr. Dr. Possible. 'Those _show folk _will be swarming around our house like buzzards until they get an interview. At least this business seems to have humbled that Dibble character. Maybe next time he'll think twice before doing a report that tries to make the good guys look bad.'

( - ) ( - ) ( - )

It wasn't only in the Possible house where people were watching the world reports. The prison which housed the infamous Cell Block D was also watching and listening. Several prisoners who had radios booed loudly when they heard that Monkey Fist had been defeated. Many of them had been hoping they could escape in the confusion if the attacks grew worse. But in one of the cells, a man with a black helmet and orange skin was packing a small suitcase. As part of the deal he had worked out with Team Probable and Leigh Gality, Professor Dementor had been given a TV set for his cell. He smirked as he saw the screen panning across scattered heaps of mechanical debris while Dibble's voice spoke.

'Troops from Global Justice at the scene have found the wreckage of the device which they believe Monkey Fist had been using to jam the world's satellite network...'

_'Gut gemacht_, Herr Probable.' said Dementor. 'That should teach that poser Dr. Drakken not to try and take over ze world using _my_ creations!' He straightened his collar and walked out of the cell, throwing his suitcase into the hands of one of the guards. 'Escort me to ze exit, muscle-bound oaf!' he said insolently. 'The sooner I depart from this hole, the better! I have lairs to rebuild and plans to make!' The guard growled with narrowed eyes, but Dementor was already strutting past him. 'Step lively and knock it off with ze glaring. Remember, a deal is a deal!'

The guards slouched along behind Dementor, muttering. Behind them in the cell, the TV broadcast was still playing, and Dibble's voice echoed faintly within the walls of Cell Block D.

'...very little is left of the machines, but Global Justice is already confiscating the wreckage, hoping to forestall any further use of this devastating technology. Sources close to Global Justice have stated that anonymous tipsters have already turned over schematics for the machines, and they are sharing the information with several countries. With this information, authorities are confident that such a machine will not be able to take out global communications again. Though since all the computers in Monkey Fist's lair have been destroyed and the data apparently lost, it is unclear where this information came from...'

( - ) ( - ) ( - )

Jade sniffed In the makeshift tech garage at the Omo-sa residence, staring up at the same report Dementor had been viewing. '_Unclear where the information came from.'_ she said, looking over at Wade. 'Bet you'll be bragging about it to the press before much longer.'

Over at an opposite table, Wade Load glanced over his shoulder to where Jade was working at her own station. 'We worked pretty hard to take down the Ultra-Atmospheric Jammer.' he said. 'Why shouldn't we tell the press about it? We've got nothing to hide.'

'Speak for yourself.' Jade muttered. 'The best kind of tipsters are the anonymous ones.' said Jade. 'Once the public knows who the tipster is, they dump him because he's not _mysterious_ anymore. But if they're anonymous, people hang on their every word. How do you think conspiracies survive when they're all so kooky?'

Even though the Jammer had been destroyed, the work to get everything back to normal was still very much in progress. Wade and Jade kept working over their computer consoles, linking up different areas and helping to restore communications as they brought more and more satellites back under control. 'I've restored military communications between the Army, the Navy and the Air Force.' said Jade. 'How's it going on your end?'

Wade grunted as he worked. 'I just got in touch with the Middleton Space Center.' he said. 'They've been using their equipment to bring satellites back under control. Now that I've linked them to other work stations around the country, they can expand the effort.' He kept typing as he spoke, watching as more satellites came back on line.

Jade slid her hand quietly down to a small pack she'd kept on the floor next to her work station, quietly opening it and reaching in. She kept tapping randomly on her keyboard, making it sound as if she were still working. She turned her head and saw Wade hunched over his own keyboard at the other table with his back turned. 'So... it's all over but the shouting?' she said, in a would-be curious voice.

'We can speed things up by continuing to coordinate the satellite restorations.' Wade answered. 'But yeah, it looks like things are getting back on track!'

'Wade... thanks.' said Jade.

Her voice sounded strange, and he turned in his chair. Jade was standing only a foot or two away, holding some kind of aerosol can, and she was wearing a gas mask. There was a hiss, and a grey mist obscured his vision. Before he could stop himself, he had taken in a coughing breath which smelled and tasted like some kind of medicine. Then his eyes rolled, going out of focus. He clutched at the desk, trying to keep his balance, but in the moment it took him to try and speak, everything went black.

Jade watched Wade slump heavily to the ground. She sighed as she took off the mask. 'Sorry about this.' she said softly. The door behind her opened, and several black-uniformed soldiers from the Riddleton Black Ops tromped into the room, followed by several people in white hazmat suits.

'Is the prisoner secure?' said the lead soldier, his voice muffled by a black mask.

'Yeah.' said Jade.

'We doing full Clean Sweep procedures?' he said.

Jade nodded. 'Go over everyplace they've been - and I mean _every_ place.' she said. The houses, the school, training yard, everywhere. Use the long and short range scanners. Take anything they've touched that you even_ think _might have a tracking device in it, and feed it into the shredder. Then take everything that was shredded and feed it into the grinder. Then take the grindings and throw them in the incinerator. Get all their stuff, their luggage, clothes, equipment - crate it up and mail it to the Possible's house in Middleton.'

The hazard suited men were already piling everything in the room into boxes and going over the room with sensor wands. The black suited soldiers were rolling Wade onto a stretcher and lifting him up. 'And the prisoner?' said the leader.

'Full medical and body scan.' Jade said. 'And be careful - this guy likes hiding bugs and tracking devices _inside_ people. We don't want them to have left anything they could use to track us.'

The leader nodded and turned to the others. 'Let's _go_, people!' he said. 'Once he's processed, crate him up with the rest of their things.' They were carrying Wade's sleeping form out through the door.

'Wait a sec!' Jade blurted out, and the lead soldier paused, looking back.

'What is it?' he said.

Jade bit her lip, fidgeting. 'Uh... make sure he has plenty of air holes.' she said weakly. 'And... some soda for the trip.'

The leader's eyes looked confused for a moment, then he shrugged. 'Yes ma'am.' he said, then they trooped out of the room. Jade looked around for a moment, watching while other members of the Clean Sweeps started tearing down the control center she and Wade had been using.

It wasn't the first time they'd used Operation Clean Sweep after a caper. Whenever a possible security leak to Riddleton was identified, the Clean Sweeps were sent in to sanitize things, and make sure that nothing was left that could trace anything to Riddleton. Jade had remembered a long time ago that she wanted to invent a 'Neuralizer', but so far she hadn't gotten past the drawing board.

Team Probable had enough resources and money that they could afford to destroy their own hideouts to keep their tracks covered, but it was still a tough operation. Especially against a group like Team Possible. She sighed again and left the garage, feeling strangely empty.

When she was out in the backyard, she saw other members of the Clean Sweeps swarming over the guest house, and some were trooping in and out of the main house. Jade saw her dad standing on the back porch, looking over the proceedings with a stoic expression. He raised an eyebrow as he saw her. 'Daughter.' he said in his gravelly voice. 'I take it that Load-san's time here is now finished?'

Jade nodded. Mr. Omo-sa sniffed as he looked at the uniformed men and soldiers milling around, boxing things up and carrying them out of the yard. 'I trust that you have remembered to inform them that I will require approval for anything that is removed from my house?'

Jade rolled her eyes and nodded. The last time the Clean Sweeps had been through their house, one of them had left a scratch on one of the marble display tables. Her father had not let her forget about it for weeks afterwards.

Mr. Omo-sa's voice took on a casual tone as he continued looking across the backyard at the proceedings. 'And... were you able to gather any more information from Load-san about the Nakasumi Corporation?'

Jade sighed. 'No, dad.' she said.

His eyes flicked towards her. 'Very disappointing.' he said flatly. 'I expected better from you.'

Jade felt stung. She didn't really feel like discussing the reasons why she hadn't tried harder. The fact was, there had been too many things keeping her _and_ Wade busy. Trying to block Monkey Fist's scheme, the business with Mr. Matter, building and organizing the tech garage, building the Counter-Jammers, designing and building the Moo-Goo guns and grenades, and so on. One thing she had done with regard to her father's snooping was to prepare a response in advance which she hoped would deflect his questioning. She took a deep breath and spoke. 'Well, I knew you were on the case after Wade had dinner with us that first night. You said you wouldn't give up until he talked. So I didn't think someone as skilled as you would need any help.'

Mr. Omo-sa raised his eyebrow even higher. For a moment he looked stern, and Jade was sure he'd seen right through her ruse. But then his expression softened. 'You use my own words and turn my own weapons against me.' he said. There was a few seconds silence, and then he nodded. 'Very good, daughter.' he said. Then he turned and went back into the house.

Jade stayed on the porch and sighed with relief. She would need to keep overseeing the Clean Sweeps to make sure they didn't get too rough with their belongings, but at least the sitch with her father was dealt with. _'Don't say I didn't do anything for you, Wadey.'_ she thought. _'You were too busy to notice, but me keeping you out of dad's crosshairs was a big-time favor.'_

_**Part II:  
Loose Ends**_

The atmosphere was still festive at the Yamanouchi School, even several hours after Monkey Fist had been defeated and returned to the Path of the Yono. His petrified form had become a kind of centerpiece to the victory celebration. The townsfolk from Basalton and Graniton who had been freed from their golem enslavement seemed particularly eager to give Monkey Fist a swift kick now and then, though Monkey Fist remained immobile and silent.

Cleanup and repair operations had already begun as well. Though the Yamanouchi students had spent previous weeks repairing the school after the Yono's first attack, they were not inclined to grumble about having to start fixing it all over again. Their victory against all odds made the upcoming labor seem somehow more agreeable.

Kim had slipped away from the celebrations and quietly returned to Toshimiru's dojo. She half expected to see the Mystical Monkey standing next to the Buddha statue and whistling, waiting for another Naco to be delivered. But aside from a deep gouge in the floor where Monkey Fist had landed, and some broken wooden lattice, the dojo showed no other signs of having been part of the combat. Even with the celebrations outside, the building seemed as silent and empty as it had the very first time she had entered.

After the angst and agony of her spiritual journey, and the hassles she had endured putting up with the Mystical Monkey, she thought she should be grateful that he was gone. But as tough the advice and training had been, she couldn't argue with the end results. _'Thanks double-M.'_ she thought, and she turned and left.

She then went quickly to fetch Monique and Enrique from the storage building in the rear courtyard. Monique looked relieved to be escorted out, and Enrique seemed disappointed that his one-on-one time with Monique was over.

When Monique saw Monkey Fist standing petrified in the courtyard, she walked up to him, cracking her knuckles. 'I owe you one for pushing me off that cliff!' she said, and she punched him in the jaw. She drew back at once, shaking her hand vigorously. 'Ow!' she said. 'Man, I forgot about the pain part!'

'Allow me...' said Enrique, moving to take her hand.

Monique skittered out of his reach. 'Back off, home-boy! I didn't ask for a medic!'

Kim smiled faintly and blended back in among the ninja. She saw Rhonda Fatigable sitting on the deck of one of the dorm buildings, petting Rueful. Chief Sakituya was there as well, and a quiet smile was on his face as he looked out over the School.

The night had mostly passed, and the inky black of the night sky was just starting to lighten when Kim's Kimmunicator beeped it's familiar tune. Turning it on, she saw Ron's face on the screen. 'Ron - where are you?' she said.

'Hey KP!' he said, looking tired, but still awake. 'Looks like quite a party down there! Are there any eats for the late-comers?'

At his words, Kim looked up around at the skies. With a nearly silent humming, the _Ksikkihkíni_ swooped down and landed in the courtyard, with two figures astride the bike. Ron threw off his helmet and made a bee-line for her. Fresh cheering broke out as Kim and Ron embraced and kissed.

They kept holding hands as they broke apart and Ron turned to look at Monkey Fist. 'You beat him!' he said, smiling brightly. 'And I wasn't here to see it - that's kind of a first!' Rufus had scurried out of Ron's hip pouch, climbed up Monkey Fist's leg and back, and was hopping up and down on his head. Ron took a close look, up and down. 'Hey, isn't that the same pose he was in when he first started on the Path of the Yono?'

'Yeah.' said Kim. 'Kind of weird, huh?'

'I _like_ weird.' Ron answered.

'Hmm-hmm weird!' Rufus squeaked.

Kim looked back at the dorm building. Grimm and Rhonda were kissing tenderly under the shadow of the eaves, while Chief Sakituya turned and pretended to be watching the breaking dawn in the other direction. 'Come on.' said Kim, pulling at Ron's hand. 'We need to talk with our 'partners'.' Ron nodded, and Rufus hopped onto his shoulder.

Rhonda looked a little dazed, and Grimm looked irritated as Kim called out to them, interrupting their kiss. 'I want to make sure the sitch is under control.' she said. 'We've got Monkey Fist. Where's Maze?'

'He got away.' said Grimm.

Ron's mouth fell open. 'You didn't say anything about that!' he said. 'I thought you tied him up and left him for Global Justice. I saw you trussing up his wrists and ankles!'

Grimm looked a bit flustered. 'I don't know how he did it.' he said. 'When I'd finished demolishing the Jammer, all I found were the cut cords.'

'What about Drakken and Shego?' said Kim, her eyes narrowed.

'Ask Ron.' Grimm answered. 'We didn't see either of them during the fight. I couldn't tell if they were ever there in the first place.'

Kim glanced at Ron, who shrugged and nodded. 'Did you _let_ them get away?' Kim growled.

A bark of laughter echoed from Grimm. 'You really think I'd let Maze go? First off, he's on my list of banned clients. Second, he's the one who banished Rhonda. Third, I don't _like_ him. Want me to go on?'

Kim gave him a look of withering disbelief. 'You said yourself, if a client pays enough, you'll put up with a lot. Plus you didn't say anything about banning Drakken or Shego. How do we know you didn't cut a deal with them?'

Grimm rolled his eyes. 'You don't.' he said. 'I can't prove I didn't, and you can't prove I did. Let's just leave it at that.'

Kim looked at Ron. 'How about the Jammer?' she said. 'Can you prove _that_ was wrecked?'

'Yeah, I saw that for myself!' said Ron proudly. 'When Grimm came back to the bike, we flew over the hatch in the mountain on our way to the airport. Total junkage!'

'Satisfied?' said Grimm, sarcastically.

Kim's expression didn't soften. 'I had to ask.' she said. 'And how did you beat Maze?'

Grimm shrugged. 'I didn't.' he said. 'All I did was wreck the Jammer when the fight was over. Ron was the man of the hour. Maze had us dead to rights with his shadow medicine. Ron powered through it and took him down along with the mini-jammer they'd built.'

Kim felt a strange stinging inside herself. At Grimm's words, her first instinct had been to say, _Ron beat him? Are you sure_? It was the same kind of feeling she'd had when she heard over her Kimmunicator that Ron had defeated Monkey Fist during their first encounter so long ago. And it was exactly that kind of disbelief, the reflexive dismissal that Ron could have done something on his own, that she thought she'd defeated forever when she'd fought Kim-i-i. Shaking her thoughts back to the issues at hand, she lifted her wrist and showed her Kimmunicator. 'If the Jammers are destroyed, why can't I get in touch with Wade?' she said. 'I've been trying to raise him for a while now.'

'Not sure.' said Grimm. 'Jade's not answering either. They're probably still busy getting all the world's satellites back to normal. Unless they're kissing again.'

Ron spluttered. 'Wade and _Jade_? _Kissing?_' he squealed. 'Whuuuuuuuh?'

Kim winced. 'Long story.' she said.

'Oh man...' Ron said, scratching his head. 'Monique is gonna be _bummed_!'

Grimm looked across the courtyard to where Enrique was still trying to sidle up to Monique. 'She'll get over it.' he said.

Ron started ticking off on his fingers. 'So lemme recap. Maze is gone, Monkey Fist is back on ice, the Jammers are wrecked and everyone they petrified is back to normal. Sounds like we're back on track to Normalville!'

'So the mission's done.' said Kim.

'Yup.' said Grimm simply.

'And the sitch with Ron and Rhonda is over.'

'Looks that way.' said Grimm.

'Then our arrangement is over too.' said Kim. 'I said once we were done, I was putting you in jail.'

Grimm smirked. 'So you did.'

Rhonda started looking back and forth between Kim and Grimm, her face suddenly nervous. Ron looked at Kim, then at Rhonda, and back again. 'Uh, everybody here is partying.' he said. 'We don't have to break it up with another fight, do we?'

'They're still criminals.' said Kim. 'And they've got a lot to answer for. If they hadn't stolen all that equipment for Monkey Fist, none of this would have happened.'

The smirk didn't fade from Grimm's face yet, but his voice was more clipped. 'You want me to bring in Leigh Gality again? There's no evidence that we ever stole _anything_.'

'A jury can sort that out.' said Kim coldly.

Grimm sighed. 'Well, your team's fully assembled and you've got a boatload of ninja to back you up. You'll never have a better chance to take us down. But in the spirit of the moment, how about letting us quietly take a powder?'

Kim was glaring. Ron cleared his throat. 'They did help us out a lot.' he said. 'And it wouldn't be the first time the bad guys got away after we blew up the lair.'

'Ooooh...' said Grimm with a shrewd expression. 'Looks like the sidekick is also the _smart_ one.'

Kim felt her hands twitching. It wouldn't take much. All she had to do was call out and the entire Yamanouchi School would come to her aid. Team Probable wouldn't stand a chance. 'Come on, Grimm.' said Rhonda taking his arm. 'Just because the sitch is over doesn't mean we have to start going at it right away.'

'That's up to _her_.' said Grimm, nodding at Kim. 'What's it gonna be, Kim?'

But Ron never found out what Kim's choice would be. At that moment, Grimm's watch started beeping. He raised his wrist and glanced at the dial. 'Whoops.' he said, turning off the alarm. 'Too late.'

There was a sudden roaring sound, and several helicopters crested over the walls of the school. There were two large cargo helicopters, which started coming in to land, the lights mounted on their canopies flooding the courtyard. There were also a number of what looked like military attack choppers which remained hovering in the air.

As the larger copters landed, armed military troops began leaping out. The Yamanouchi ninja still had their weapons, and readied them almost instantly. But Master Sensei stepped in front of them and raised his hand. At his gesture, the ninja lowered their weapons, but only slightly.

The troops had formed a firing line, but their leader also raised his hand, and the troops did not raise their weapons. The troop leader and Master Sensei met in the middle of the courtyard. 'This is a private sanctuary.' said Sensei. 'You are not welcome here.'

'We're not here to fight and we won't stay long.' said the leader. 'We're with the United States Department of Defense and we came to return Monkey Fist's victims to their homes. We're also here to arrest _them_.' and he pointed at Team Probable.

Kim looked at Grimm, who was smirking. And she understood at once. She rushed to Master Sensei's side. 'He's lying!' she said. 'Grimm's family is _in_ the DOD! They came here to bail them out!'

The troop leader's face was inscrutable behind his mask. 'Our orders are to take them into custody by force - if necessary.' he said. 'If you turn them over to us, you have my word that we will leave your sanctuary untouched.'

Kim looked up at the attack choppers with their machine guns batteries and missile launchers. The residents of Graniton and Basalton were looking up at them and at the soldiers, their expressions now scared. She was sure that the Yamanouchi ninja were at least a match for the soldiers, but she couldn't risk anyone getting spooked and opening fire with innocent people in the midst. She looked over at Team Probable again. Grimm, Rhonda and Rueful were all on their knees with their hands raised. Grimm was still smirking.

Master Sensei raised an eyebrow, looking at Kim. 'They are your enemies. The choice is yours, Kim Possible.' he said.

She sighed heavily. 'Let them go.' she said.

At once, a number of the soldiers fanned out through the courtyard. A troop of black masked soldiers were wheeling the _Ksikkihkíni_ aboard one of the copters. The residents of Graniton and Basalton were being ushered towards the other. 'Where are you taking us?' said the old woman with the cane.

'Back to your homes, ma'am.' said one of the soldiers. 'Our orders are to gather everyone who was used by Monkey Fist and get them back where they came from. Once we're at the airport in Tokyo, you'll be boarded onto a passenger jet and taken to England.'

'Oh _my_.' said the old woman. 'Will we all _fit_?'

'We'll do multiple trips if we have to, ma'am...' said the soldier, and they disappeared on board.

Other soldiers had surrounded Grimm and Rhonda and were frog-marching them onto the other chopper. It certainly looked as if they were being taken prisoner, but Kim wasn't fooled. Without anyone to lead Kim back to Riddleton, it meant Team Probable would disappear again. A sudden thought came to Kim and she went up to where Grimm was being loaded onto the copter. Ron followed behind her. 'What did you do to Wade?' she said. 'Where is he?'

Grimm smiled faintly, even as the soldiers hauled him up the ramp. 'He's fine.' Grimm answered. 'Black Ops sent him back to Middleton along with your stuff. He might actually beat you there.'

Kim shook her head. Grimm had planned all this in advance, probably days beforehand. 'You _jerk_.' she said.

'Come on Possible, we beat the _real _bad guys already.' said Grimm. 'Let's not spoil it by sniping about which one of us comes off with the most points. The world is saved and you can go back to hogging the camera like you always do.'

Chief Sakituya was being led into the chopper, looking very out of place in his Indian garb, but he seemed more comfortable than the soldiers, who even behind their masks seemed bemused by their bizarre cavalcade of passengers.

Ron suddenly called out, and Kim saw why. Several troops had hoisted up Monkey Fist and were carrying him towards the copter. 'Hold it!' Kim shouted. 'You're_ not _taking him!'

'No choice, Possible.' said Grimm, and his smirk was gone. He looked serious, and the cocky edge was missing from his voice. This more than anything else stopped Kim's protests while Grimm spoke on. 'We can't leave him here.' he said. 'Maze is still on the loose, and he _knows_ where Yamanouchi is. Sensei's ninja are good. But we're talking about a guy who's devoted his life to hunting down relics and artifacts. No matter where they hide Monkey Fist, Maze would find him. He comes with us.'

'What makes you think _you_ can guard him better than we can?' Kim said.

'Where are you gonna keep him?' said Grimm. 'Cell Block D? The place leaks more than Arkham. You might as well gift-wrap him for Maze with a pink bow on his head.'

'It's not where he's kept I'm worried about.' Kim said, her eyes gleaming. 'It's _who's_ keeping him.'

'Don't worry.' Grimm said with a wry laugh. 'After double-crossing us and putting us through the wringer like he did? Monkey Fist isn't going free again. But I'm sure the first thing Maze will try next is to find his partner. And if Maze re-animates him, they could start this whole mess all over again. _Not_ gonna happen.'

Nearly half of the Graniton and Basalton citizens had been loaded up, and the pilot was giving the ready signal for lift-off. The soldiers on Grimm's chopper were pulling him further inside. 'I guess that's everything.' said Grimm, leaning his head out. 'So long, Possible. It's been real. As in - a real _pain_.'

Kim glared back at him. 'So that's it?' she said. 'Aren't you going to brag?'

'No.' said Grimm. 'But don't think anything's changed. It's not like we _bonded_ during this caper. You still hate my guts, I still can't stand you. I said at the start that once this was over, I wanted to pretend like none of it ever happened. That's a promise I'm gonna _keep_. You've got my word no one will spill the beans about Yamanouchi. And if you're feeling all _sentimental_, I'll send you a Bundt cake at Christmas.'

'Farewell, my beautiful Monique!' said Enrique, standing at the other side of the chopper's main hatch. The motors on both copters were revving up, and the rotors were spinning faster. 'I shall never forget you. I only wish you could come with me!'

'Oh please - don't go.' said Monique in a flat, sarcastic voice, rolling her eyes. 'Whatever shall I do?'

The copter was rising in a cloud of dust and rock chips. 'Be strong, sweet one!' Enrique called down. 'My heart will always be yours!'

'Until he sees someone else.' Monique muttered.

Kim stared with glittering eyes as the helicopter rose higher. Grimm was smirking down at her. Rhonda was also standing at the hatch, looking down at Ron. She had a strange look in her eyes that almost seemed like _regret_ as they moved further away, and she raised her hand in a half-hearted wave of farewell.

Ron was waving back, a faint smile on his lips. The engines whined loudly, the copters wheeled and turned, and soon they were swallowed up in the shade of the rising dawn. Soon only their blinking tail lights were visible, fading to tiny dots that skirted above the mountain peaks.

The rest of the former golems, about twenty men and women, stared after the helicopters. 'I... suppose they _will_ come back for us, won't they?' said one of the men, who was dressed like a bartender.

'Yeah.' said Kim. 'But I think we've seen the last of Team Probable.'

'Hey, what about _us_?' said Ron suddenly. 'We need to go home too - where's _our_ helicopter?' He looked hopefully at Master Sensei and Yori.

Yori laughed softly. 'Stoppable-san,' she said, smiling. 'I am glad you have not lost your American-style sense of humor. Of course, as the victorious heroes, it will be...'

'I know, I know!' said Ron with a groan. 'It will be our honor to walk!' Both Yori and Sensei bowed. 'Now I know I'm really back.' Ron muttered. 'Only real life is this annoying.'

Soon, Kim and Ron had changed back into their normal mission clothes. The few belongings Kim had brought with her to Yamanouchi were stowed in her pack. She, Ron, Rufus and Monique stood near the shattered gate. Master Sensei, Yori and the entire assembly of ninja bowed to them. 'You _all_ have our thanks, for what you have accomplished here.' said Sensei gravely. 'You should be proud of this great victory. The Yamanouchi School, and the entire world, owe you a great debt.'

'Always glad to supply the mad moves!' said Ron, and he and Sensei made the peace sign to each other before bumping fists.

Kim bowed back to Sensei, then took Ron's hand. 'Come on team.' she said, and she felt a great relief as she spoke her next words. 'Let's go home.' Team Possible crossed the hanging bridge, and with a last glance back at the school, they took the trail leading back down the mountains.

( - ) ( - ) ( - )

Morning continued to rise outside the walls of Yamanouchi, but there was a patch of shadows between two outcroppings of mountain rock which did not become any brighter in the growing dawn. Maze stood hidden in the shadows, staring with an open mouth at the ruin of the Yono Shrine, at the damaged school, and the ninja students milling in the courtyard. Some of them were gathering tools and supplies, getting ready to begin repairs.

But he saw no sign of his golems, or of Monkey Fist. He kept watching, as if unable to believe what he was seeing. It was only when the sunlight began to fully creep over the mountain peaks that he shrank further into the darkness and disappeared.

_**Part III:  
Homeward Bound**_

Grimm watched with satisfaction as a pair of the Riddleton Black Ops wheeled the petrified and immobile Monkey Fist into the garage of his house. They set him down in a dark, cobwebbed corner among an assortment of old rags, boxes, holiday decorations and lawn ornaments.

It was now half a day since their escape from Yamanouchi. Confusion and difficulties with the slowly returning world communications had lengthened the flight back to Riddleton for some time. Once back, the Riddleton Black Ops and the Operation Clean Sweep troops had brought them back to the Probable house.

Grimm ushered the Black Op soldiers out with a respectful salute, and while he closed the garage door, Rhonda fished out a Santa hat from a dusty box labeled 'X-Mas' and put it on Monkey Fist's head. Then she and Rueful took one of the tarps and wrapped it around his waist and shoulders to make a crude looking dress. 'How do ya like _that_ Mr. Ultimate Monkey Master?' she said.

Grimm stood by her to admire the handiwork. 'He's never looked better.' he smirked, putting an arm around her shoulders. He was suddenly aware of how much he had missed the way Rhonda's neck and shoulder warmed his arm, and found himself leaning closer to her. She didn't seem to notice, for her eyes were still on Monkey Fist.

'So, what do we do with him?' she said. 'Keep him?'

Grimm shook his head. 'Too risky.' he said. 'I wasn't kidding when I told Possible that Maze would try to find him. Somehow, Sakituya tracked me to Jade's house. If there's even a chance that Maze could find Riddleton, then it's too dangerous for us to stash him here.'

'What about your dad?' Rhonda said. 'They could box up Monkey Fist and put him in that warehouse where they're keeping the Ark of the Cov...'

'Still too dangerous.' he said, breaking in. 'We need to hand him over to someone who's constantly on the move so Maze can't get a fix on him. Someone who will keep an eye on Monkey Fist all the time.'

Rhonda bit her lip and puffed out a short breath. 'Where are we gonna find someone like _that_?' she said. 'Who's going to want to spend all their time baby-sitting a statue?'

Grimm shrugged. 'I'll have to think about that. In the meantime, he should be OK in the garage, so long as we keep him covered up.' Then his voice softened. 'But how about you?'

Rhonda blinked in confusion. 'What about me?'

Grimm stood in front of her, his hands on her shoulders. 'How are _you_ doing after all this?' he said. 'You were stuck in limbo for a month with only the doofus-king for company. How are you holding up?'

Rhonda wasn't sure how to answer. Partly because Grimm's sudden closeness was making her focus more on his face and the sound of his voice. And partly because with Ron's help, it hadn't been so bad, especially towards the end. 'OK I guess.' she said, feeling her cheeks blushing as Grimm kept staring into her eyes. 'Doing a lot better _now_.'

'Do you need to talk about it?'

She shook her head. 'Not yet.' she said. 'Right now... I'm just glad to be back.'

Grimm nodded. 'At least tell me one thing.' he said. 'There were times when you could see me, and Possible. You saw me before I took on the giant golem, and when I made that deal with the Great Bear Spirit, right?'

Rhonda nodded. 'You were so brave, going up against that monster...' she said.

He looked at her more keenly. 'That Mystical Monkey must have made a similar deal with Possible.' he said. 'And whatever it was, that was the clincher that brought you back. What was it?'

Rhonda sighed and started to tell him the story...

( - ) ( - ) ( - )

'Thanks for giving us this ride, Clutch.' said Kim. Clutch Cargo leaned back, looking through the hatch of the cockpit of his plane.

'Not a problem, Kim Possible!' he said, giving them the thumbs up. 'It's the least I could do after you saved the world from those rampaging statues!'

'It was no big.' she said. 'Anyone could have defeated a super-strong animated monkey statue - with the best team in the world backing them up!' She gestured at Ron, Monique and Rufus.

They had been on board the plane for hours while they made their way back to the States. When they had finished their hike down from Yamanouchi to the Japanese lowlands, they had found a great commotion of people moving hither and thither on foot, in cars and whatever else they could use as transport. With the golem menace ended, the police, military and townsfolk alike were going about trying to set things in order, inspecting damage, or trying to find family members who had been separated in the confusion.

They had managed to get a lift to the airport, where they found things even busier. Workers were clearing debris from the runways, airport staff were going about breathlessly, trying to get things fully up and running.

But they saw no sign of the military choppers which had descended on Yamanouchi. When she asked an air traffic controller, Kim was not surprised to hear him say that he had not seen any choppers coming or going.

With things as chaotic and busy as they were, they were worried they might spend several days trying to find a flight out of Japan. But they had spotted Clutch Cargo, who was heading back to the States after dropping off some relief supplies, and he had gladly agreed to take them along.

While functional, Cargo's plane wasn't really designed for comfort. Kim had hoped to have a quiet moment or two with Ron, to talk about things, and to get news from him about what he had experienced in the Spirit World. There were so many questions she wanted answered now that he was back.

But despite the hard seats, the drafty cargo hold and the rumbling throb of the engines, Ron had slumped to the side and fallen asleep barely a few minutes after takeoff. Rufus was asleep too, curled up in Ron's hip pouch and bearing a look of contentment that Kim hadn't seen since Ron was banished weeks ago. When Ron started snoring, Monique made to nudge him, but Kim stopped her.

'Let him rest. He's earned it.' she said.

Monique sighed, looking around the plane. 'I can hardly believe it.' she said. 'It's _really_ over! We're finally going back home.'

'Yeah.' said Kim. 'Sorry about the weirdness. Normally my missions don't take this long.'

'S'all good, girlfriend.' said Monique, smiling. 'Mom keeps saying I need to get out and meet new people. This ought to keep her quiet for a while. I'm just glad we can go back and do the normal again. School, work, shopping... Heck, I wouldn't even mind seeing _Bonnie_ again.'

'I hear you.' said Kim, and she ran her hands through Ron's hair. Ron kicked in his sleep like a dog being scratched, and snored on.

'How about you guys?' said Monique, pointing at Ron. 'You're both OK, right? I mean, you haven't had much time to talk since he got back.'

'Yeah, but after a month I think we can wait a few more hours.' She ran her hand through his hair again, and again he thumped his leg like a sleeping puppy.

Monique chortled. 'Cute.' she said. 'Can I try it?'

( - ) ( - ) ( - )

It seemed all too soon when the time came to bail out of the plane. Clutch turned on the auto pilot and helped them prepare their chutes before opening the rear hatch.

Ron couldn't remember having Monique present for a sky dive, and she looked even more nervous about the prospect of free-fall than she had about fighting Gill and Camille Leon. But as a credit to her mettle, she made the jump.

'Why couldn't we just land the plane and catch a _cab_?' Monique screamed.

'I've been asking that for years!' Ron wailed.

The earth spun and shuddered beneath them, but Monique could still see several familiar landmarks below. They were over Middleton - they were home. Kim gave the signal to open their parachutes and Monique felt a jolting sensation as the chute unfurled and her fall was slowed. Kim had instructed her on how to steer and guide her descent, but the ground still seemed to be coming a lot faster than she wanted.

They stayed apart from each other and staggered their landings in the field behind Kim's backyard. Monique's landing went better than she thought, but she still stumbled and tripped just as she thought she was stopping, and she was pulled down as her chute drifted overhead and tugged her. She got up from where she'd landed on the grass, feeling dazed. There was a nearby rustling sound, and she looked up and saw Ron and his chute were tangled in a tree.

'Yep.' he said weakly. 'Been doing _that_ for years too.'

Kim landed smoothly a few yards away while Rufus scurried from branch to branch, using his teeth to cut through the chute cords until Ron tumbled to the ground with a yelp. 'Everyone OK?' she said.

Ron gave the thumbs up. 'Just... great.' he groaned as he staggered to his feet.

They packed their chutes and started through the backyard. But they hadn't gotten to the door when Mr. and Mrs. Dr. Possible came bursting out, followed by Jim and Tim. Mrs. Dr. Possible swept Kim into a hug which Kim returned. 'Hi Mom, Dad.' she said. 'Tweebs.' she added.

'Kim we were so worried...' said Mrs. Dr. Possible. 'All the things we were hearing in the news, and you were gone so long this time...'

'It's all over, Mom. We're back.' she said.

Mr. Dr. Possible smiled, patting her shoulder. 'I knew she'd be fine.' he said. 'Anything's possible for a Possible!'

'And Ron's back!' said Jim and Tim at the same time.

'Why does everyone keep talking about my back?' said Ron, craning his neck, trying to look over his own shoulders.

Mr. and Mrs. Dr. Possible glanced at each other. 'Yes, that's Ron all right.' said Mrs. Dr. Possible. 'Welcome home.'

Once inside the house, Kim found herself having to relate the story of everything that had happened after she went to Riddleton. Mr. Dr. Possible in particular seemed to want to make sure that no boys had tried hanging out with her, but he seemed satisfied when he heard that Monique had been there to keep an eye on things. He even seemed to be all right to hear about the Riddleton Prom Rehearsal dance on hearing what a battle-axe Ms. Darken was.

Kim had given only very slim details about her training with the Mystical Monkey. For her, the experience was still too personal to talk about. The twins had wanted more information, thinking that the idea of a talking monkey was 'neat', but Mrs. Dr. Possible had sensed the hesitant and pained expression on Kim's face and encouraged Kim to move on to Ron's return and the showdown with Monkey Fist and Maze.

When she was finished, she breathed a sigh of relief, for as tough as it was to speak of the ordeal, having to _live_ through it had been worse. Mrs. Dr. Possible sighed, putting a kindly hand on the shoulder of both Ron and her daughter. 'I know summer's not here for a while yet.' she said. 'But I think you both deserve a vacation.'

Mr. Dr. Possible was peering out through the front curtains. 'Well, here come the _show_ folk.' he muttered. 'You've barely been back half an hour and they already got wind of it. I guess we'd better get ready for some interview requests.'

Mrs. Dr. Possible moved next to him and looked out. 'That doesn't look like a news wagon.' she said. 'It's a... _delivery_ truck.'

They went outside while Kim and the others followed. A flatbed had pulled up alongside the street in front of their house. On the back, Kim saw the _Sloth_, tied down securely. She also saw a large wooden crate, about six feet square. A man in a gray jumpsuit got out of the truck and approached them, carrying a clipboard.

'Evening, Mr. Possible.' he said jovially. 'Special delivery for you. Just sign here.'

Mr. McVeeley.' said Mr. Dr. Possible, looking curiously at the flatbed and its cargo. He absent-mindedly signed the form. 'Who sent these?'

'No idea.' said Mr. McVeeley, shrugging. 'These were air lifted in just today, with instructions to send them straight to your place. It was an unmarked plane, breezed straight in and out and they didn't even sign any forms.'

'Probable.' Kim growled. Mr. McVeeley lowered a ramp, and Kim climbed up. A few moments later, she was driving the Sloth back down to street level. The car seemed fine, though she wanted to turn it over to Wade to check for bugs or any kind of tampering. As she got out again, she saw Mr. McVeeley pushing the crate onto a lowering platform. Soon the crate was on the sidewalk as well, and with a wave, Mr. McVeeley got back into the truck and drove off.

It was then that Kim heard a thumping noise from inside the crate. There were a number of holes, and through them came a muffled but familiar voice. 'Hey - is anyone listening? Get me out of here!'

'Wade?' Kim said. 'Are you all right?'

'Kim?' came Wade's voice. 'Get this thing open and _hurry_!'

'We need a crowbar!' said Kim, wheeling around, but Jim and Tim were already rushing eagerly at the box, crowbars in hand.

'Awesome!' said Jim.

'How often do we ever hear anyone _asking_ to break something open?' said Tim.

They both tore into the task with gusto, heaving and prying at the side of the crate while the others watched. Before long there was a squeal of bending nails, and the front panel of the crate swung down with a crash.

Kim peered inside, and there was Wade, sitting on a stool in the shadows with a very glum expression. There was a cooler with several empty soda cans next to him.

'Bathroom!' he said sheepishly, and he dashed up the driveway into the house.

'Hey, it's our stuff!' said Monique. Kim looked back in the crate and saw their bags, suitcases and other items. They were tied and fastened to the inside of the crate. They were unfastening the bags and heaving them out of the crate when Wade returned.

'They gave me soda, but no rest room.' he grumbled. 'Typical.' Wade pulled one of the large stickers from the side of the crate. 'Oh - _"Heavy LOAD"_!' he said. Then he turned furious eyes up at the sky. 'Funny, Jade! Really _funny_!'

'What happened?' said Kim.

Wade bit his lip. 'Jade hit me with some kind of knockout gas while we were working on the satellites.' he said. 'When I woke up, I was trapped in that crate.'

'I think I know the answer to this already.' said Kim. 'But did you rig up anything that could help us track down Team Probable?'

Wade glanced at his luggage and equipment, which were now on the driveway. 'I did, but I don't know if they're still working. I'll have to get home and run a few programs.' he said. 'Once mom is finished lecturing me on staying away for too long.'

Monique gasped. 'Oh snap.' she said. 'My _mom_! I gotta get back home - once she's sure I'm OK, she's gonna _kill_ me!'

'I'll give you both a ride.' said Kim, unlocking the _Sloth_. 'After all your help, it's the least I can do.'

( - ) ( - ) ( - )

Grimm stormed into his basement room with Rhonda following behind him timidly.

'I don't believe this.' he growled, slumping down into his chair. 'All that angst I had to go through, all that time I spent begging the Great Bear for help, all that time you had to spend in the spirit world. And you're saying all Possible had to do to put an end to it was to say she's _sorry_?'

Rhonda felt a little alarmed. After she had told Grimm what she had Ron had seen, and Kim Possible's battle with Kim-i-i, she hadn't expected Grimm to be angry about it. 'Well it wasn't that simple.' she said. 'It was really tough on her. You kind of had to be there...'

Grimm didn't seem satisfied. He was still shaking his head and looking as if Donnie had cut him from the gymnastics team again. 'That's how they ended _Bartholomew and the Oobleck _for Pete's sake!' he sneered. 'Talk about cheesy...'

'Come on Grimm,' said Rhonda. 'Forget about it. It's over...'

'Oh _no_.' said Grimm, shaking his head. 'This is _not_ over. You saw how she was trying to double-deal us. The whole time we were supposed to be working together, she was planning to stab us in the back. Its only because I planned ahead that she couldn't pull it off. Now that things are back to normal, we can find a way to pay her back!'

Rhonda sighed while Grimm sat at his computer and started dashing off an email. 'Some of the Irregulars are still keeping tabs in Middleton.' he muttered. 'I'll have Twitch give us the low-down...'

Rhonda thought about Ron, who was probably only just getting back home after the long ordeal, and felt a strange ache inside. 'Grimm, I don't think we should be bother with them just now.' she said.

Grimm turned and looked at her curiously. 'You _what_?' he said, sounding partly sharp, and partly surprised.

She wiped her forehead to avoid looking in his eyes when she answered. 'I mean...' she said, hesitantly. 'We've got other stuff we need to deal with, right? We need to find someone who'll hide Monkey Fist, we need to help Jade finish up with Clean Sweep, and then I've got to get back to school...' She ended with a hopeful glance at Grimm. To her relief, he looked like he was considering.

'Yeah, I guess that's true.' he said, tapping the desk with his finger. 'And I haven't even told your folks that you're back yet, I should have done that first.' He got up and took Rhonda by the hand, leading her towards the door. 'We can hold off dealing with Possible until after the clean-up is taken care of. In the meantime, let's get you back home. I bet Indy will be glad to see you.'

Rhonda felt better as they left Grimm's room. She wasn't sure why, but the thought of hassling Kim and Ron so soon after the sitch with Maze and Monkey Fist made her uncomfortable. She knew Grimm would come back to the idea before long, but like the thought of doing unpleasant homework, she was glad to put it off for a while.

( - ) ( - ) ( - )

Dropping off Wade and Monique had been wonderfully mundane. Kim had helped smooth things over with their parents, assuring them that Monique and Wade had both played an important part in stopping the golem attacks, though it only seemed to mollify them slightly.

Kim gave Monique a hug on the driveway while Ron hauled her bags into the house. 'I'll see you at school tomorrow.' she said. 'Thanks again for everything.'

'Just remind me not to volunteer on any missions again until I know what I'm up against.' Monique said, but she was smiling. 'Oh, and if Enrique calls, I'm _not_ home!' She walked inside, waved and closed the door.

Later, Ron had groaned a bit when taking Wade's bags into his house, since his luggage had mechanical parts and was a lot heavier. 'Be sure to let me know if you pinpoint Riddleton.' Kim said. 'If satellite communications are still spotty, they might be easier to track.'

Wade looked doubtful, but nodded. 'See you next sitch!' he said, and disappeared inside the house. Even as they were pulling out of the driveway, Kim saw the familiar blue lights turning on in his room and shining through the blinds.

A few minutes later they were back in the driveway at her house. When the car engine was off, Kim was suddenly aware that she and Ron were alone in the car together. Rufus was asleep in Ron's hip pouch. There was no one else around.

Ron had a sheepish look on his face, and his freckled cheeks were flushed. He looked adorably shy. 'Well, I guess I'll head home too...' he said, but Kim leaned over and took his arm.

'Not just yet.' she said softly. 'In all the weirdness, I still haven't had the chance to say it.'

'Say... what?' his voice sank low as Kim slid her other hand around his neck, their faces almost nose to nose.

'Welcome back, Ron.' she whispered. And she leaned in to kiss him. Kim felt strong anticipation. She'd been waiting for this moment for over a month. The sitch with Monkey Fist and Maze was over, Team Probable was gone, and Ron was back. There was nothing left to keep them apart, no looming battles or treacherous allies. Just the two of them...

Their lips touched. But instead of comforting warmth, Kim felt something else, sudden and intense. _She was watching Ron as he sat alone, trapped in the Janitor closet during the Spirit Week Dance while she spent the evening with Josh. He was giving up his job at Bueno Nacho for her. She saw his hurt and shocked face as Grimm told him the truth about the tracking chip Wade had planted on him. Then he was returning from the spirit world, seeming as bright as a star to her eyes..._

She pulled back from him. Ron looked confused and slightly hurt. 'Sorry.' she said quickly. 'It's just... well, I forgot Dad's in the house and you know how he is...'

Ron smiled and nodded. 'I hear you.' he said. 'After a month in the spirit world, the last thing I want now is to get shot into deep space!'

'Plus you might want to let your parents know you're back.' she said.

Ron's mouth fell open. 'Oh _man_, I forgot to call and let them know!' he squealed. 'They're probably still worried sick! I'd better get back pronto!' He fumbled with the seat belt and scrabbled at the door lock.

'I'll see you tomorrow at school.' she said, squeezing his hand. 'Get some rest, because I bet a lot of people there will be glad to see you again.'

'Can do!' he answered, and he slid out of the car door. 'Sleep is something I can do that doesn't need study!' he paused for one moment, looking shy again. 'KP... thanks again for saving me. You really went beyond the call. Catch you tomorrow!'

'Yeah. Tomorrow.' she said, forcing a smile onto her face as Ron closed the car door. She watched him as he raced down the sidewalk towards his own house. Once he was out of sight, she went inside the house and leaned against the wall, sighing heavily and putting both hands on her forehead.

_'What happened just then?'_ she thought. It was almost like being back in Toshimiru's dojo, still on her spiritual journey. But she thought that was all over. Even the Mystical Monkey seemed to think she'd had enough. But somehow being alone with Ron, and having him close to her had brought back all the feelings of remorse and guilt she had felt when she was fighting with Kim-i-i.

'Where did Ron go?'

Kim blinked and shook her head. Her mom had just walked in, on her way to the kitchen. She had a knowing smile on her face. 'I thought you and Ron might go out and relax together now that things are quieting down.' she said.

'We _will_.' said Kim reflexively. 'I mean... he's been away from his family for weeks. I thought he should get back to them.' She ended with another forced smile.

Mrs. Dr. Possible paused for a moment, giving her daughter a suspicious look that Kim knew too well. She picked up her books and moved towards the stairs. 'Gotta get a start on my homework.' Kim said quickly. 'See you at breakfast.'

Once she was in her room, she set up the books at her desk. _'Had to be a fluke.'_ she thought. _'I'm just still weirded out by everything that happened. Once I've rested up a little...'_ But she wasn't sure what she would do after that. Instead of starting on her homework, she turned her attention to her bags, still unpacked after having been shipped from Riddleton.

She started putting things away, and while she fished clothes and other items out of her luggage, her hand fell on a piece of paper. She took it out and found herself looking at a check. Mr. Matter's check, which he had signed to her after the caper in Riddleton. Her endorsement signature was still on the back.

In the turmoil of the last few days, she had all but forgotten about it. Now the dilemma of what to do with it returned to her mind in force. It was money from one of Grimm's clients, and to her mind, it was tainted. But now that Maze and Monkey Fist were defeated, there was the question of all the damage done by their attacks. She could help out people who had been hurt by the golem scheme, including Monique and her family.

She found herself staring at the check for several minutes. Then she stuffed it underneath the mousepad at her computer desk. _'I can't deal with this now.'_ she thought. She started getting ready for bed, leaving the check and her homework untouched. _'Better take my own advice and get some rest.'_

She should have slept like a stone. It was her first night at home without worry since Ron had disappeared. But even though she went to bed early, sleep remained as elusive as Riddleton...

_Coming Soon:_

_Chapter 35  
The Journey Continues_

_ Author: Now that Kim and Ron are home at last, Kim is finding that the spiritual journey isn't as over as she thought it was. What will it mean for the team? And now that Grimm is back, what has he got up his sleeve? Don't give up on the story just yet, for the heaviest blows are still to fall!_


	36. Ch 35: Looking Back To The Future

A Friend In Darkness  
All Things Probable 3

A Kim Possible Fanfiction  
by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and its affiliates, etc. etc.

Chapter 35  
_Looking Back To The Future_

_**Part I:  
The Pink Sloth Returns**_

After her night of fitful sleep, Kim had gone down to breakfast the following morning. The first thing she saw was her father standing in the front doorway, trying to wave off a large crowd that was gathered on the front lawn. She heard his voice, sounding peevish and impatient.

'...didn't invite any of you here, and if you don't clear off my property I'll call the police!' There was a pause as Kim heard a wave of muttering voices, and he said loudly. 'My daughter will make a statement on her own time, not yours! Until then, show a little courtesy and leave her alone!'

Kim sighed. She'd only been back for half a day, but she should have known the news of her return would leak out somehow. She saved the world so frequently that the media normally didn't pester her at home after her missions. Often they were content with photos and a headline reading _Kim Possible Does It Again_.

But this sitch, like the Diablo Robots, had been much bigger. And she knew the media wouldn't be satisfied until they got a statement. She felt a momentary twinge of jealousy as she thought about Team Probable. Working from the shadows and with powerful organizations dedicated to covering their tracks and hiding their existence, Grimm Probable wouldn't have to worry about dealing with the press when he got back home. She nudged her father's elbow from inside the door, and he glanced towards her.

'It's all right, dad.' she said. 'I may as well get it over with.'

Mr. Dr. Possible sighed and nodded, then stepped aside. As soon as Kim was on the doorstep, there was a flurry of camera flashes; thickets of microphones were jabbed towards her, and a chorus of voices all shouted at once.

'Miss Possible, can you confirm...'

'Miss Possible, what was...'

'Miss Possible, what about...'

'Miss Possible, will you be...'

She held up her hands and waited for the babble to die down. She looked out and saw Summer Gale, A. U. Dibble and nearly all the other reporters in Middleton, as well as a few national network representatives. 'Sorry you all had to get up so early.' she said, smiling faintly. 'And that you got _me_ up so early.' It was a pattern she'd learned to follow from numerous meetings and press conferences after missions. Start with a light-hearted joke, state your purpose in addressing them, then make your point, take a couple of questions, and leave.

'I'm sure you'd all like a long conference, but I have to be at school soon, so this will have to do. First off, it's true that my team and I found and defeated Monkey Fist. We also shut down the machines they used to take over world communications. Satellite communications are being put back in place now by governments and private companies, and they'll be able to tell you about the technical aspects of that a lot better than I could. But the long and short of it is, the sitch is over.'

One of the reporters stood on tiptoe and shouted. 'What about Monkey Fist? If you defeated him, then where is he?'

The memory of Monkey Fist being loaded onto a DOD helicopter flashed through her mind. 'As I understand,' she said, choosing her words carefully, 'He was taken away by the Department of Defense. Where they're holding him, I have no idea.'

'Some reports stated that Monkey Fist had an accomplice,' barked another reporter. 'What about him?'

'He was also defeated, but he later escaped. He's on the run, but if he turns up again, our team will be ready.'

'You say 'our team'.' said Summer Gale. 'Who assisted you in taking down these villains?'

'My friend Monique.' said Kim quickly. She deserves a lot of credit. But most importantly, my boyfriend Ron Stoppable.'

Dibble now raised his voice. 'Mr. Ron Stoppable?' he said. 'I understand he went missing some time ago. Are you saying he's been found?'

Kim nodded. 'He's back home with his family and he's perfectly fine.' she said. 'In fact, he was the one who destroyed Monkey Fist's machine and saved the day, so be sure to make a note of that to your readers and viewers. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get ready for school.'

There were more shouts, camera flashes and waving of arms, but Kim stepped back inside and closed the door. Mr. Dr. Possible and Mrs. Dr. Possible peered through one of the living room curtains.

'Well that should keep them off your back for a while, anyway.' he said. 'Looks like they're racing now to see who can be first to make a report on your statement...'

Kim breathed a sigh of relief. 'Then let's have breakfast before they regroup.' she said.

( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - )

While Kim's home was a media beehive, the Probable house in Riddleton was peaceful and quiet. Grimm sat at the breakfast table eating scrambled eggs and toast. The small TV was on in the kitchen, and as he ate, he watched Kim's press conference. Crawl text at the bottom of the screen read, '_Famous teenage crime fighter Kim Possible issues statement about worldwide statue attacks'_ and _'Kim Possible says one of two villains is still at large'_.

Mrs. Probable sniffed from her place at the table. 'Well I'm glad that _girl_ has finally left.' she said.

'You and me both.' Grimm muttered. Another news crawl was scrolling that read _'Kim Possible says Monkey Fist being held by DOD - awaiting word from State Dept. Officials'_. Grimm turned to his dad, jabbing a fork at the screen. 'Her blabbing like that won't be a problem for you, will it?' he said. 'I tried to tell her it's better off if no one knows where Monkey Fist is...'

Mr. Probable pursed his lips and shook his head. 'As always, we maintain plausible denial.' he said. 'We can't confirm or deny that we have him in custody. And it's not a lie to say we don't have him, because we _don't_. Our people will route the media's information requests through a number of different departments. So long as Monkey Fist doesn't surface again, they'll eventually get tired of asking.'

He wiped his mouth with a napkin and his expression turned more serious. 'I trust he _won't_ be found, boy.' he said. 'It took a lot of doing to get the Riddleton Black Ops over to Japan and extract you _and_ Monkey Fist. Never minding any schemes he might launch if he gets loose again, it will mean a lot of thorny questions if he _is_ freed.'

Grimm swallowed some orange juice. 'Don't worry.' he said quietly. 'Monkey Fist isn't walking away from this.'

Mr. Probable grunted, glancing towards the hallway leading to the garage. 'I don't like him being kept here.' he said. 'You'll have to make other arrangements.'

Grimm nodded. 'I'm working on it.' he said. 'I have to make sure it's someplace Maze can't find him.'

'Too bad Kim had to leave.' said Mim from behind her plate.

'We hardly got to hang with her at all!' said Lynn.

'And we saw Enrique after you got back.' said Mim. 'He looked bummed. I think he wants to build a shrine to Monique in his room or something.'

Grimm grunted, taking another bite of eggs.

'Is there anything else we should know about?' said Mr. Probable, paused while lifting his own fork to his mouth. Grimm shook his head. 'Well then, you'll need to get back to your homework.' said Mr. Probable firmly. 'Graduation is coming up at the end of the school year, and I expect you to to stay on top of things.'

'Yes sir.' said Grimm, glumly thinking of the homework he'd neglected while taking care of the sitch with Monkey Fist and Maze. And he still had Friday detentions with Donnie. With Rhonda back, he had been hoping for some Friday date evenings with her again. Instead he'd have Donnie for company. _'Some reward.'_ he thought. _'Bet Possible would love to know about that.'_

'And... how is Rhonda?' said Mrs. Probable, in a voice that sounded a bit too nonchalant.

Grimm looked at his watch, realizing the time. 'School time.' he said. 'Better go check on her...' And he wolfed down the rest of his breakfast before excusing himself and dashing from the table.

Within a couple of minutes, he opening the garage door and wheeling the _Ksikkihkíni_ onto the driveway. He paused to smirk at the lumpy mass in the back of the garage, which marked where the petrified Monkey Fist was covered by a tarp. _'Catch you later, Monkey Master.'_ he thought, then closed the garage behind him.

( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - )

Chief Sakituya hiked wearily around a turn in a road flanked by high trees on either side. He saw Kamp Kwitcherbeliakin in the distance, a collection of cabins surrounded by the green of the forest, and on one side, a curving blue arc of the nearby lake. Before he had gotten halfway from that point to the camp entrance, he saw a hulking brown shape shambling up the path, loping eagerly towards him.

Gentle Paw made a lot of rustling and thrashing noises as his huge body pushed through the overgrown sections on the road. When he reached Sakituya, he capered around him like a gigantic puppy.

Sakituya smiled when the bear reached him and he patted his head. 'Yes _Ikkinikinsstiwa_, I am glad to see you as well.' he said. 'And it is good to be home. When a man reaches my age, travel often causes more discomfort than wonder. It is rightly a sport of the young and curious.' He heaved another sigh as he thought back to the journey. After the Riddleton Black Ops had whisked Team Probable and himself away from the Yamanouchi School, the troops had questioned _Otaatoyiwa_ about many things at the request of his father. They hadn't said much to Sakituya, and seemed satisfied by what Grimm told them about Maze, and the golem attacks, and the destruction of Monkey Fist's machines.

Grimm had also asked for Chief Sakituya to be dropped off directly at Kamp Kwitcherbeliakin, but Sakituya had shaken his head. 'The animals would be disturbed by your flying machines.' he had said. 'If you will take me to the border of the forest, it will be enough.'

And so he had made the trek back to the camp on foot, taking simple pleasure in the sight of the forest and its beauty. As the Indian Chief and the bear re-entered the camp, Gentle Paw was grunting and snuffling. Sakituya nodded. 'Yes, things have gone well. _Sskipoyiwa's _dangerous plot was defeated, and order has been restored, at least for now.'

They reached Sakituya's cabin, and Gentle Paw kept growling softly. 'The Chosen One?' said Sakituya, and he paused with his hand on the door handle. He looked back and up towards the sky. There were clear patches of pale blue. But in the distance, near the mountains which surrounded the camp, there were still lowering clouds, and a rumbling of thunder.

Sakituya frowned. 'She is home safely.' he said at last. 'But I think... their journey is not yet over.'

_**Part II:  
Back To School**_

Ron decided to hitch a ride with Kim on this particular day, rather than going himself on his scooter. He first wanted to give his parents the chance to thank Kim for bringing him home.

Mrs. Stoppable actually hugged her while Ron stood by holding Hana. 'Oh _Kim_...' she said, and though Kim couldn't see, she could tell that Mrs. Stoppable was holding back tears. 'Of all the times you've brought Ron back safely, this is the one I'm most grateful for.'

'Though I have to say son, you gave your mother quite a fright, just coming back in through the door as if nothing had happened.' said Mr. Stoppable, though a relieved smile showed his true mood. 'You might have called and told us.'

'That _was_ my way of telling you.' said Ron, and Hana said 'Brother!' while clinging to his arm.

Kim was feeling more awkward by the second, but to her relief, Mrs. Stoppable finally let go of her. 'Kim, how can we thank you for this...?' she said.

'Please, Mrs. Stoppable.' said Kim, 'I was glad to.'

Mr. Stoppable put his hand on his wife's shoulder. 'Now honey, let them go off to school.' he said in his soothing voice. 'We wouldn't want Ron to be late now that he's finally back.' Mrs. Stoppable nodded and took back Hana, though the ninja baby didn't seem keen on letting go.

'Don't use your kung-fu grip, Hana!' said Ron. 'I promise I'll be back soon!'

Kim had several worries as she and Ron got in the _Sloth_. She wanted to kiss him again, partly for the sake of being close to him, and partly to see if her reactions the previous evening had been a fluke. But she also half-dreaded it, for fear that the wave of guilt and discomfort she had felt might happen again. To her relief though, Ron seemed in too big a hurry to bring the situation forward. He buckled in while Rufus scurried into his hip pouch, and they started on their way to the school.

( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - )

Grimm felt a comfortable sensation of normalcy when he picked up Rhonda from her house. For the first time in a month, he felt that things were finally as they should be. Rhonda's parents had been relieved and grateful to have her back. Little Indy seemed especially delighted, and Grimm saw Rhonda had fallen easily back into her normal rounds of keeping Indy out of mischief while the curious toddler laughed and tried to hide from her.

As they left the house and got on the bike, Rhonda was puffing. 'Barely home an hour, and I was already back on baby-sitting.' she said, but she didn't really sound upset about it. 'And why did you have to let pom-pon stay in _my_ room? She saw all my _stuff! _She might have gone through my clothes!'

Grimm felt her arms shivering as she held onto him and they started off down the street towards the High School. 'Sorry about that.' he said, though his mind was distracted by the feeling of having her arms around him. 'It was the only place they could be close to the action when they were out here. Jade made sure your diary and everything personal was secure.'

'I hope so.' she said. 'How's your Cousin Mary doing? I missed the Prom Rehearsal Dance.'

'You had a good reason.' said Grimm. 'I took your place for the musical number...'

'Oh yeah, I saw parts of that!' said Rhonda, and Grimm was surprised.

'You _did_?' he said. 'From the Spirit World - you saw...?'

'Saw you singing?' Rhonda chirped. 'Yeah! That was so sweet...'

Grimm blushed furiously under his bike helmet. 'Yeah well,' he said uncomfortably, 'Don't say it like _that_. I'm just glad you can take over again. I didn't like being on stage.'

'I donno, you looked great in your tux.' Rhonda said.

Grimm heard Rueful chittering from Rhonda's backpack. 'Don't get all schmaltzy on me.' he muttered. 'Besides, we'll be at school in a minute or two, and I bet Darken will know the second you set foot on the grounds.'

He felt her arms flinch. 'Oh man, I forgot!' she said. 'I bet she's been sharpening knives every day since I left.'

'She wasn't _that_ bad.' said Grimm fairly. 'But she'll want to know what you've been up to... Where you were...' He ended curiously. So far Rhonda hadn't talked much about her experience in the Spirit World. He had tried various ways to get her to open up, but so far she hadn't taken the bait. That said to Grimm that Rhonda was either too scared to talk yet, or that it had been too personal. If her experience was anything like his own when he'd been trying to contact the Great Bear Spirit, he could see why she was reluctant to discuss it. Still, it didn't stop him from being curious.

And indeed, Rhonda said abruptly, 'Oh hey, there's the old stomping grounds!' Riddleton High was looming ahead down the streets.

( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - )

The bell for classes at Middleton High School pealed across the grounds and students trudged glumly towards their classes. The marquee outside the school read in jumbled letters, _'Golem attacks over - Homework still due'_.

Ron paused while standing next to Kim at the entrance, and he sighed. 'You know,' he said, 'After everything I went through, I'm even glad to see _this_ place again!'

As they made their way down the hall, Kim held his hand. _'So far so good.'_ she thought, letting her fingers curl warmly around his. _'No weirdness and no flashbacks. Must have been a one-time only.'_

To pretty much everyone around them, it was just another school day to be endured. But Ron was looking at it with a renewed feeling of childlike wonderment. Most of the students, who hadn't really paid much attention to Ron before he disappeared, didn't seem to even notice now that he was back. Although not everyone ignored his unexpected return.

Members of the football team, including Nick Tragg, did a double-take as they saw him walking down the hall with Kim. 'Stoppable.' said Nick. 'You gonna be back on the field then?'

Kim was a little annoyed that the jocks only seemed to miss Ron's running back prowess and the wins it gave the team, but Ron grinned. 'You know it!' he said in his always-innocent tone. 'Mad Dog's still got the mad moves!'

Nick nodded, then he and the others moved down the hall. Ron whistled. 'Wow!' he said. 'I've never seen Nick get that emotional! I think he really missed me.'

Kim wondered for a moment how guys could tell that sort of thing, but stopped short of asking because the cheer squad was following not far behind the football team. They spotted Ron and greeted him warmly, though seeing Kim holding his hand seemed to stop any of them from trying a hug. One of the cheerleaders, however, did not look pleased to see them.

Bonnie was standing next to Tara and the others. 'Kim.' she said, and her voice was cold. She made only a half-glance at Ron. 'I see you found _him_.'

Kim nodded curtly. 'I suppose this means you want to take over as squad leader again?' said Bonnie.

'Uh... ya _think_?' said Ron. 'The squad needs their bon-diggety captain at the helm!'

'For your information _loser_,' said Bonnie, again without fully looking at him, 'The squad was doing just fine without her.'

Bonnie kept her eyes fixed on Kim, and as such, she did not see every other member of the squad frowning and shaking their heads behind her back, looking imploringly at Kim.

'Well as tempting as it would be to leave you in charge,' said Kim, matching Bonnie's sarcasm, 'As of today, practice resumes with me as head cheerleader.'

Everyone in the squad except Bonnie whooped. Bonnie tossed her hair and stumped off, glowering. Ron stared after her. 'Was she always that snarky or have I been away too long?' he said.

'Both.' said Kim.

'Ron! Great to have you back!' came another voice, before they had gotten much further. Felix was gliding down the hall in his futuristic wheelchair.

'Felix! Long time no see - I mean, _really_ long time!' Ron and Felix high-fived, and Kim saw Monique coming down the hall as well.

While Ron and Felix chatted, Kim greeted Monique. 'Everything cool now that you're back home?'

Monique nodded. 'House is still in one piece.' she said.

'How about your mom's work place...?'

'It'll be down for another week or two. That giant golem thingy did quite a number on the business district. But... we'll get by until its up and running again.'

Kim wasn't' sure what to say. After learning in Riddleton that Monique's family was short on funds, and even more so after the golem attack, she wanted to help in some way. And there were countless other people out there who had also been affected by Monkey Fist's scheme. She knew it sounded hollow and feeble, but she couldn't stop herself from asking. 'Is there anything I can do?'

Monique shrugged. 'Not unless you know building construction and repair.' she said. Then as if trying to change the subject, she turned to Ron and Felix. 'Nice to see you made it to school, Ron.' she said. 'After all the trouble we went through dragging you back.'

'Yeah, sorry about that.' said Ron sheepishly. 'Hope it doesn't happen again!'

'So, what was it _like_ anyway?' Monique asked, putting forth the question that Kim herself hadn't asked him directly yet. 'Probable said you were in 'The Spirit World'. What's life like on... the _other side_?'

Ron looked uncomfortable, tugging at his own shirt sleeves. 'Well... it's kind of hard to explain...' he said.

'Can it wait a minute?' Felix spoke up. He was biting his lip nervously, looking back and forth among the four of them. 'Uh... Kim, Monique, could you give us a second?' he said.

Kim smiled and pulled Monique back a few steps. Ron looked politely puzzled as Felix gestured him closer and started speaking in conspiratorial mutters.

Monique was shrugging free from Kim's grip. 'What's up, girlfriend?' she said. 'I don't want to miss anything!'

'Monique, ixnay!' Kim whispered. 'Felix needs to ask Ron something!'

'So?' Monique answered. 'He can ask while we're there, can't he?'

'No.' said Kim firmly.

'Why _not_?'

'Because it's about_ Zita_.' said Kim, nudging Monique's shoulder.

'What about her?'

'You remember?' said Kim, pouring on a sly tone to her voice. 'Felix wants to _ask_ Ron... about _Zi-taaaa_?'

Monique's hands flew to her mouth in a comical gasp of remembrance and she stopped questioning at once. 'Oh...' she said. 'You think he'll be down with it? He kind of wierded out when Yori said she was fine with him dating. Won't he freak if someone he dated starts going out with his best friend?'

They heard Ron suddenly squeal _'Whoa!'_ They leaned their heads and saw him looking at Felix with a surprised smile on his face. They spoke a few seconds more, and then Ron's smile went lopsided and he started digging a fist into Felix's arm. Felix's face was totally red and he was hushing Ron desperately.

'Rufus was right.' said Kim, smiling. 'Looks like Ron's down with it.'

'Rufus is _always_ right somehow.' said Monique. 'That's gotta be annoying.'

Ron was still thumping Felix on the back even as he was wheeling away. He had a dazed look on his face as he rejoined Kim and Monique. 'Wow - Felix and _Zita_?' he said. 'I must've been in the Spirit World longer than I thought! Did anyone else start dating while I was away?'

'They haven't started _dating_ yet.' said Kim, but she was smiling too. 'He just wants to ask her out.'

'Well, Felix can be pretty smooth.' said Ron, rubbing his chin. 'I wouldn't be surprised...'

_**Part III  
Kissus Interruptus**_

Finally they got to her locker. As she opened it, the computer screen inside blipped on and Wade was there, looking perfectly normal, comfortable, and at home behind his desk. 'What's the sitch, Wade?' she said, and Ron leaned in to listen.

'Hey Kim.' Wade answered. 'Thought you'd like an update on Riddleton.'

'You _found_ them?' said Kim, surprised.

Wade's face looked crestfallen. 'Not yet.' he said regretfully. 'I've tried zeroing in on all the bugs I left while we were there. So far none of them are responding to my signals. I'm just tracing the last one...'

'Well it was worth a try...' said Kim, but she heard a loud beep from Wade's speakers.

'Hold it - this one's still active!' Wade looked delighted. 'Tracking...'

Kim held her breath, and Ron crossed his fingers. 'Oooh, this could be our lucky day!' he said, and Rufus nodded from Ron's hip pouch.

Wade's face looked baffled. 'According to this, the signal is coming from... _outside_.'

'What?' said Kim.

Wade suddenly disappeared from his chair, and there was the sound of a door opening and closing. After a minute, Wade came back into the room carrying an unmarked package. He opened it up and Kim saw him dumping out a cascade of chunky, grey powder. Finally, there was a _thunk_ as a tracking chip slid out and fell on the desk, along with a dusty note. He picked it up and stared for a moment. Then he glared and started reading.

_'Dear Wade: Here are your tracking devices. Some settling may have occurred during shipping. Love and hugs, J-Girl.'_

Kim, Ron and Wade stared silently at each other for a few seconds. Then Wade grumbled and turned back to his keyboard. 'I'll double check and see if they missed anything.' he muttered.

'Please and thank you.' said Kim, trying to smile.

'Well after all that, I guess we couldn't expect finding them to be easy.' said Ron, shrugging.

Kim thought back to the Mystical Monkey's advice - that _the good guys work harder and that's why they win_. Somehow though, she couldn't feel grateful to Team Probable for presenting such a challenge.

'Well, first period starts in a few minutes.' said Ron, glancing at the hallway clock. 'Guess I'll... see you at lunch.' He gently laid his hand on her shoulder and leaned closer. Kim knew he was going to kiss her, and she felt a twitch of momentary panic. But she forced it down, willing herself to relax...

'_Possible! Stoppable!'_

The sharp bellow of Mr. Barkin's voice made Ron squeal and try to hide behind the door of Kim's open locker. Mr. Barkin was standing before them with an expression like an angry thundercloud.

'You only just got back,' he growled at Ron. 'And you're already trying to break my PDA rules! I thought maybe you'd spend at least _some_ of your time away learning to respect authority.'

'The sun was in my eyes!' said Ron, cringing. 'You saw me out of context! I forgot what the meaning of the word 'is' is!'

Mr. Barkin talked over him, ignoring his babbling. 'But I'm prepared to overlook the attempt, since I'm glad to see you back, Stoppable. The team hasn't been the same without you.'

Ron seemed to lower his guard, but only a little. 'You're _glad_?' he said. 'Is this some kind of_ trick_?'

'Not at all.' said Mr. Barkin. 'In fact, I have a welcome home present.'

Ron brightened. 'A present? All right! It's about time the Ron-man got some appreciation!'

'I couldn't agree more.' said Mr. Barkin. He lifted up a sizeable block of paper which he had been carrying, and dropped it heavily into Ron's hands. 'And I'd _appreciate_ you handing in this homework as quickly as you can. Graduation is still coming at the end of the school year, and you've got some catching up to do.'

'Homework?' Ron wailed. 'Aw _man_!'

'Not to mention you have some work shifts to make up for at Smarty-Mart.' Mr. Barkin went on. 'It won't be easy, but you should be able to finish all the homework and still pass your finals.'

'Come on, Mr. B!' Ron pleaded. 'It's not like I was off on _vacation_! Isn't there any way you could ease things up a little?'

Mr. Barkin raised an eyebrow in his characteristically stern expression. 'Yes, if you don't mind going to Summer School.' he said. 'Of course that would mean you wouldn't get your diploma with the rest of the Seniors.'

Ron had smiled hopefully on hearing Barkin say the word _yes_, but fell back into a dismayed frown after he finished. He looked back and forth between the pile of homework, and Kim. 'Not graduate with the others?' he said, his voice now weak and doubtful. He sighed heavily and hefted the pile of homework in his hands. 'Guess I'd better unplug the Y-Box.' he said. Then he turned to Kim. 'You'll help me out, right?'

Kim had a mental rush of images of Ron and herself, working on his homework. They might be sitting on the couch together, and Ron would be very close... close enough to hold hands... or kiss... She realized she was hesitating, and quickly blurted out, 'Spankin! That sounds... great.'

Ron seemed to notice something off about Kim's response, but Mr. Barkin was talking again. 'Welcome back then, Stoppable.' he said. Then he bellowed, '_Now both of you get to class before I give you detentions!'_

Ron cowered again, then a second later he was rushing down the hallway, looking back at Kim and waving awkwardly while still holding onto his bundle of homework.

( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - )

At Riddleton High, Rhonda had gone through a similar gauntlet of being welcomed back by the Chess Club, the Track Team, by Cousin Mary, and Felicia. Donnie Stoneport had simply shaken his head and rolled his eyes, as if the sight of Grimm and Rhonda walking down the hall together was inconveniencing him somehow.

'Nice to know everyone's doing OK.' said Rhonda, fishing books from her locker. 'I can't believe Zack Powers asked Felicia out - who knew?'

Grimm felt his blood boiling slightly as he thought back to the time when Rhonda had been crushing on Zack a couple years ago. At the time he hadn't minded, but now... 'Me neither. I never liked him.' he said in a low grumble.

Rhonda caught his change in tone at once and playfully mussed his hair a little while bumping her locker closed with her hips. 'You're so _cute_ when you jel.' she said in her chirpiest voice.

'I'm _not_ jelling.' he answered defiantly.

'You're cute when you're not, too.' she said.

Grimm smiled and leaned against the lockers. Her voice had gone soft, and she was looking at him and standing in a way that he knew was her open invitation for a kiss. Their lips were just about to touch, and he could feel the warmth of her...

_'Probable! Fatigable!'_

Rhonda screamed and dropped her books as she jumped, banging the back of her head against the lockers. Ms. Darken was standing barely three feet from them, looking livid. 'You _know_ my policy on public displays of affection within these halls, do you not?' she said.

'Good Morning Ms. Darken.' said Grimm flatly, while Rhonda scrabbled on the floor to pick up her books.

Ms. Darken glared at both of them. 'Come with me.' she said, and her voice was deathly cold.

Grimm and Rhonda looked at each other, and followed Ms. Darken down the hall. Rueful slipped inside Rhonda's book bag and zipped it shut. Ms. Darken led them towards her office. 'You missed several weeks' worth of classes.' she said.

'It wasn't on purpose!' said Rhonda pleadingly. 'And I've got a perfectly sane explanation! You see, an Indian shaman used magic powers to send me to another dimension, and then there was this talking _monkey_...'

'_Silence!_' Ms. Darken shouted. Grimm signaled to Rhonda that now was not the time for interruptions, and they resumed following her without speaking

'While I'm glad you're back safe,' Ms. Darken continued, her heels clacking on the tiled hall floor. 'Your unscheduled furlough means you'll have quite a lot of catching up to do if you want to be on schedule for graduation.'

Rhonda's mouth fell open. She'd heard speeches like this from Ms. Darken enough times to know what was coming. 'You're giving me _homework_?' she squealed.

'Technically, I'm merely giving you the homework you _missed_ while you were away.' Ms. Darken answered.

'Awwwww!' Rhonda moaned.

Grimm caught a gleam of satisfaction in Ms. Darken's eye as she opened the door to her office. 'The work will be challenging, but not insurmountable.' she said. 'So long as you adhere to a strict schedule from this point on...'

But the words died in her throat. As they entered, they saw Ms. Darken's desk was pattered with dusty pawprints. On top of the desk was an assortment of chipmunks, rabbits and songbirds. As soon as they saw Rhonda, their mis-matched chirps, squeaks and chittering rose in a chorus that sounded like _'Wekkom hom!'_

Rhonda smiled. 'Aw, thanks guys!' she said. 'I missed you too!'

Ms. Darken's eyes shot back and forth between the animals and the scattered items on her otherwise rigidly ordered desk. There was a momentary pause as she took in a deep breath, her lungs swelling. The animals scattered, dove and flew out of the open office window. As they scurried away from the building, there was a prolonged shout from behind.

_'Fatigable!'_

( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - )

Eventually the end of the school day came to Middleton, and the final bell rang. The students flooded eagerly out of their classes, slamming locker doors and chatting as they headed for the exits. Kim was collecting books from her locker. Ron had settled back into class attendance fairly easily, though it was clear that he was scrambling to try and update all his notebooks and re-review all the things he'd studied before he had been banished. He seemed anxious to catch up, and as they headed for the main doors, Kim caught him looking nervously at a banner draped near the trophy case that read 'R U Ready 2 Graduate?'

But Kim was also nervous - about being alone with Ron. 'So... are you coming to my place to start on that homework?' she said.

'Not yet.' said Ron. He was shaking his book bag, where his work vest was poking out. 'I've gotta high-tail it over to Smarty Mart! I've got catching up there too. But I'll be done later in the evening - is it OK if I come over then? Barkin actually gave me a color coded chart to follow...'

'Sure thing.' Kim answered, but it was through another forced smile.

'I'll see you later then..' and unexpectedly, he leaned forward. His lips brushed against hers.

_Ron was still locked in the closet, sleeping on a bed of boxes. His face was shocked and helpless as she threatened his place on the team if he didn't step up against Team Probable. He was staring at her across a booth table at Bueno Nacho, with a tracking chip between them, looking betrayed and sad..._

Kim broke off the kiss and leaned back. 'Not _here_.' she said, trying to sound innocent. 'You don't want to get Barkined again, right?'

Ron looked momentarily surprised by her withdrawal from the kiss, but a look of understanding quickly replaced it. 'Oh yeah.' he said, looking around as if he expected Barkin to suddenly burst out of a locker and start shouting at him. 'Well, I'll see you later tonight!' And he dashed out of the school.

She waved at him through the doorways while he waved back. 'Tonight...' she said through her forced smile. '...just great.'

She felt ashamed of herself. This was twice now that she should have been relishing the chance to kiss her BF freely again, but all she could think about was all the rotten things she had seen herself doing on her spiritual journey. She remembered kissing him just after he'd returned - she hadn't felt such intense shame or guilt then. What was wrong with her? She sighed and looked at her watch. Cheer practice was in a few minutes, and she had to hurry and get changed. But as she turned back into the hallway, she stopped short.

Bonnie was standing only a few feet away. She was staring at Kim with a look of cunning perception, her eyebrow raised. 'Can't bring yourself to kiss him, huh Kim?' she said. 'Well, I can't say I blame you. After all, he is N.O.K.D.'

Kim stared back at her blankly.

Bonnie smirked. '_Not Our Kind, Dear.'_ and she turned, heading down the hallway towards the gym.

_Coming Soon:_

_Chapter 36_

_What is it that's hard to do,_

_because it's hard on you?_


	37. Ch 36: Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

A Friend In Darkness  
All Things Probable 3

A Kim Possible Fanfiction  
by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and its affiliates, etc. etc.

Chapter 36  
_Breaking Up Is Hard To Do_

_**Part I:  
The Friend In Darkness**_

Kim spent the next two days walking on eggshells. Somehow she managed to get through several study sessions with Ron without holding hands or kissing him. But it was obvious that Ron was noticing it, and her excuses were becoming repetitive and more transparent.

She didn't know what else to do. She _wanted_ to kiss him, but every time she did, she remembered the visions of her spiritual journey, and it totally killed the mood. School encounters between them were getting more awkward. And it seemed to Kim that Bonnie was always lurking somewhere nearby, as if enjoying the sitch immensely.

At the end of practice, Kim had gone home to do her own homework. She turned on the TV in her bedroom loft, taking a short break between two history chapters, and flipped through several news reports.

World communications were almost fully restored, and nations around the world seemed to have settled back into their routines of bickering and quarrelling over trade, borders, all the 'normal' things. Damage from the golem attacks was being repaired, and some of the reports were already turning to other news events - a sign that things were truly settling down.

But some channels and reports were still covering aspects of the golem sitch. A few channels here and there were showing silhouettes of Monkey Fist with a question mark on his chest, and banner headlines in all caps - WHERE IS MONKEY FIST NOW? But each report left the question unanswered.

Kim did note that in all the reporting, Maze had escaped scrutiny. He was never named, and even the reports that did mention him referred to him as '_Monkey Fist's mysterious accomplice'_. Kim wondered where he was now. He was the one who had freed Monkey Fist and started the entire scheme, yet no one seemed to be inquiring closely about him. Maybe it was because Monkey Fist was the one who had made the video ultimatum to the world when the golems were attacking. Or maybe Monkey Fist was simply more high profile because of his previous crimes. But whatever the reason, Maze remained anonymous.

Kim wondered if she should have mentioned Maze directly to the press, and was thinking she would do so if any more reporters made inquiries. But another report had started, and she listened to a well known anchorman on DNN.

'...manhunt is still underway for the super-villain Monkey Fist, who crippled the world's satellites and attacked with an army of animated statues. Any person with information regarding his whereabouts is urged to contact the appropriate authorities. So far, the Department of Justice will not confirm if they have Monkey Fist in custody, as teen hero Kim Possible asserted in a recent statement.'

Kim's mouth fell open as she heard what the reporter said next. 'Kim Possible of course, is the teen heroine who single-handedly defeated Monkey Fist and saved the world, as she has done on numerous occasions...'

Kim turned off the TV in disgust. _Single-handedly_? When she had answered questions from the press, she had been careful to make mention of Monique's role, and Ron's. But like Maze, Ron was being quietly dropped from all the press coverage. As far as she knew, no one, not even A.U. Dibble, had gone to his house to ask about his version of events, or even ask how he was doing.

She clenched her hands as she thought back to all her past missions. Somehow, Ron always got cropped out of every photo. He got edited out of every interview. No one ever cared what he had to say. He never seemed to get any of the glory. And he never really complained. Every so often he would say, _Aw, man!_ But then he would forget all about it and go right on smiling.

And he had done so much. The number of times he had saved her - even if only by just distracting the bad guys long enough for her to take them down. He had stopped Monkey Fist. He defeated White Stripe. He had beaten Gill - _twice_. He had flattened an army of Wegos bare-handed. And the one time Ron _had_ gotten some of that glory, just after he saved Russ Cueler, she had _resented_ him for it.

Many times when Ron had been absent from missions - like the sitch with Hank's Cupcakes and Drakken's freezing machines - those were the times when Kim had come closest to being defeated. And now Ron had destroyed the Ultra-Atmospheric Jammer - saving the world from Monkey Fist _and_ Maze. Where without him, she and Grimm had been thwarted for nearly a month. But once again, Ron's role was being ignored.

Ron had stepped up for her a hundred times over, and what had he gotten in exchange for any of his sacrifices? A place on the sidelines so he could clap and cheer - for _her_? While the world ignored him and his contributions? Was it any wonder he had turned into a vengeful super-villain when the Attitudinator removed his good?

She curled up in a chair - her homework forgotten as she brooded. Ron had joined the football team for _her_. Gotten his job at Smarty-Mart for _her_. He went on missions, risking life and limb... for _her_. Weren't these improvements? Rising to his potential? Would he have done any of those things if she hadn't driven him?

_Potential boy_. He had so much potential that was just lying idle because he had no reason to use it while she was getting all the attention. _'And he'll never have the chance to live up to that potential,' _ she thought with horrible realization. _'As long as he has to live in my shadow.'_

She thought back and suddenly remembered a note, sent by Grimm just before he turned up in Middleton, asking for her help.

_Help me reach a friend in darkness._

Ron had been in the Spirit World, in darkness, for weeks. But when she had seen him returning, he had been so bright to her eyes. When she had thought about the note, about Ron, all during the time she was trying to save him, she thought _he_ was the friend in darkness she was struggling to reach.

She remembered what Grimm had said. _'He's an exceptional guy. In all the years that you've known him - has he ever done anything to willfully hurt you? But how many times have you done things to hurt him? You've lied to him - you've ditched him - you've marginalized and criticized him at almost every level. And still he's stuck with you. Frankly, you don't deserve him.'_

She heard Kim-i-i shouting at her during their battle. '_Ron was always there for you to step on when you wanted to look a little taller! What kind of monster are you?'_

She buried her face in her hands. _'The friend in darkness wasn't Ron - it was me all along.'_

She started as she heard her Kimmunicator beeping, but it wasn't Wade. It was a text message from Ron. The bright blue letters flashed across the Kimmunicator screen. _Back from Smarty-Mart. Can u come over? - Ron_

Kim turned off the Kimmunicator, trying to muster her courage. She'd had no lack of courage while Ron was missing. She had worked harder and fought longer than she ever remembered to save him. And now it was time for her to save him again. Though the thought of what she would have to do to save him now filled her with dread.

( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - )

When she entered the Stoppable's backyard, she looked around but couldn't see Ron anywhere. Under the deeper shade beneath the tree house, she spotted a white sign fastened to the tree. In black marker, it read, _'Up Here, KP'_

She climbed up the rickety planks nailed to the tree trunk and hoisted herself up through the trap door. Ron was standing in front of the moth-eaten couch, but he was wearing his tux. Not the ugly, frilly blue one he had worn at Junior Prom, but the nice black one he'd worn at Homecoming. He was even wearing dress shoes.

'Ron?' she said. 'What's the sitch?'

'No sitch, KP.' he said, waving his hand. 'Well, I guess there _is_ one but it's not a super-villainey thing.' He sighed. 'Kim, we need to talk. You've been avoiding me since we got back, and I think I know why.'

Kim felt as if clammy fingers were closing around her insides. She suspected he'd picked up on the awkwardness, but deep down she had also hoped his normally innocent nature would overlook it. 'Ron...' she said, but he broke over her.

'Nah, don't deny it KP!' he said, and there was no trace of bitterness or anger that she could hear. He sounded more like he was trying out his guess at a riddle. 'I can tell. And... I don't blame you.'

Kim was confused now, because it was Ron who sounded guilty. And before she could say anything, he started what sounded like a speech he had practiced beforehand.

'Monique and Felix have been asking what it was like when I was... away.' he said. 'At first there was Monkey Fist to deal with, then it was just too weird to think about. I haven't told anyone yet, because I wanted to tell you first. It's time for me to do something I meant to do almost a year ago, but never got around to - talk about my feelings!'

Kim felt nearly spellbound as he looked down at his feet. 'When I was in the Spirit World, I hung out with Rhonda.' he said, 'There really wasn't much to do except talk. So we talked a _lot_. Somehow our own bad vibes came to haunt us while we were there. Rhonda was taking it pretty hard, so I kind of helped her out by teaching her how to groove like the Ron-man.'

'But some of the things we talked about got me thinking. And I saw something that I'd never thought about before. I saw I haven't been a very good boyfriend. When you started going out with Eric, I freaked because I thought I was losing you. Then after that thing with the Diablos, you took me to prom and... it was all so amazing.'

'And not long after that, I blew it. I mean, I'd been trying to find a girlfriend for ages. Then suddenly I had one - the most bon-diggety GF anyone could ask for! Someone smart, and beautiful, and talented. I should have been thanking my lucky stars every day and treating you like a queen. But instead I wound up treating it all like it was just another toy, or a game I could put on the shelf without thinking twice. And I'd just expect it to be there ready and waiting when I got back. But dating's not like that. It's not _supposed_ to be like that.'

He heaved a sigh and looked straight at her. 'I can't go back and change all the lousy things I've done.' he said. 'But I _can_ do my best to make up for it.' He snapped his fingers and Rufus pushed a box tied with a pink bow across the couch. Ron picked it up and held it out to her. 'Happy Three-Quarter-Versary, Kim.' he said, smiling.

Kim numbly took the box. 'Three... Quarter-Versary?'

Ron grinned, shrugging. 'Cuz it's about three quarters of a year since we started dating! You remember that belt you gave me for our Half-Aversary? In the Spirit World I realized that I never gave _you_ anything. I was selfish and stupid. This is just... my way of saying I'm sorry.'

Kim opened the box and gasped. It was a dress. A duplicate of the dress that had been ruined by the Diablos, and moreover she could see a logo stamped inside the lid. '_Country_ Club Banana?' she said. 'Ron, this must've cost...'

Ron waved his hand again. 'Well, since I'm on a homework-only diet until further notice, so I figured I might as well _sell_ the Y-box and use my game money to get you something special.'

'Ron you shouldn't have...' said Kim, shaking her head.

'That's another thing.' he said, and his face was beet red. 'When I was a millionaire, I spent all that money on myself and I didn't even _think_ about you. And you tried to warn me to be careful with it, but I wouldn't listen. I'm sorry about that too.'

Kim felt her breath short. 'Ron, don't...' But again, Ron spoke over her.

'I know,' he said with another wave, 'You're thinking, _what's the point of a dress without an occasion to wear it?_ Check out the card!'

Then Kim noticed a card lying on top of the dress. It was a reservation for Chez Chouteaux. 'Oh no...' said Kim. In any other circumstance, she'd be swept off her feet by all this. But given what she swore she would do for Ron's sake, it only made things worse.

'Yeah, I know the first time we went there it didn't turn out so well.' he said, smiling. 'That's another thing I realized in the Spirit World - that I can be kinda thoughtless. When we first went to Chez Choteaux, I was goofing around with coupons and crayons when I should have been trying to be a little more grown up. I don't get embarrassed much, so I never realized how embarrassed _you_ might be. But we can go back now, and I promise - I won't gorf out, or turn into an orange troll, or try to scam a cheap meal.'

Kim felt tears building. It was all so wonderful, but after her spiritual journey, it was also painful. 'Please stop...' she whispered, but Ron didn't seem to hear her.

'Remember when you got your memory wiped?' he said, again looking ashamed. 'You remembered everything except that I was your boyfriend. In fact you looked totally gorched out when I said we were dating. I guess since I wasn't a memorable boyfriend, I was easy to forget. When you got your memory back, you said, 'I _think_ I love you'. If it had been me, I wouldn't be a hundred percent sure either. You made the effort, and like a total sap, I didn't. All I cared about was myself. And it's just another thing I did wrong that I can set right.'

He bit his lip and looked her full in the eyes. 'Kim, I know guys aren't really good at talking about stuff like this. But I want you know I luuuuh...' He paused, coughed and took a deep breath. 'I _luuuuuh_...' he tried again, putting his hand over his eyes. '...I _luuuuuh_-ve you.' he finished at last, looking like he'd unshouldered a heavy weight. 'I _love_ you, KP. And I hope someday, you can be sure you really love me.'

He looked at her, smiling. 'So what do you say, KP? Would you like a night on the town with a guy who's learned his lesson about how to treat a lady?'

Kim looked into Ron's face. This was what she had fought for, suffered for. To have Ron back. And more, he had stepped up. Not just against Maze and Monkey Fist, but he was promising to make up for all the things that had ever gotten on her nerves. But instead of feeling joy, or passion or even relief, she felt unworthy, and tainted. Ron wasn't even kissing her now, but somehow everything she had seen in her visions with the Mystical Monkey flashed through her mind and seared her heart. All the shame and pity and remorse over what she'd gone through, what she'd seen _Ron_ go through - because of her.

She bit her quivering lip. Death rays. Mad scientists. Golems, synthodrones and evil henchmen by the dozens. She had stared them all in the face without any fear. But she found herself unable to look into a single pair of loving brown eyes. Eyes that belonged to someone with a heart and a spirit so pure and bright that it had hurt her own eyes just to look at him.

Ron stared as Kim suddenly dropped the Country Club Banana box as if it was stinging her. She covered her tear-streaked eyes and jumped down through the trapdoor onto the lawn below the tree house. Ron stood there dumbfounded, watching through the rough window as she ran down the street towards her house. He turned his eyes to Rufus, who looked back at him and shrugged.

'I shouldn't have reminded her about the coupon book.' said Ron.

_**Part II  
Cuz Breaking Up Is Hard On You**_

Mrs. Dr. Possible was fixing dinner in the kitchen when she heard a door slamming and a thumping of footsteps heading upstairs. She went out into the living room. 'Kim?' she said. 'Is that you...?' But there was another door slamming upstairs from Kim's loft.

A few seconds later, there was a knock at the front door, and Ron Stoppable was there, looking very strange in a formal suit and tie. His normally smiling face was frowning and uncertain. 'Uh... hey Mrs. Dr. P. Is... Kim home?' he asked hesitantly.

'She just went upstairs I think.' said Mrs. Dr. Possible.

Ron was blushing. 'I know Mr. Dr. P might have issues - but its kinda important.' he said. 'Could I go up and see her?'

Mrs. Dr. Possible nodded. As Ron went up the stairs, she stared after him. Her mother's intuition was fairly reliable, and at the moment, it was sounding all kinds of alarm bells. 'Oh _dear_...' she said quietly.

( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - )

Through her closed and tear-filled eyes, Kim could still see Ron sitting alone on a see-saw while she dated Eric. She saw Ron being attacked by a giant roach while she ran away to save herself. She saw Ron laughing evilly as the Mega-Synaptic Transducer reversed the good and evil of everyone on Earth...

She heard a knock at the door, and Ron's muffled voice. 'Kim?'

She didn't want to let him in. But she had to. She owed him that much. Still, she couldn't bring herself to look him in the eye as she opened the door. Instead she heard his voice, hurt but still trying valiantly to be of good humor.

'Uh... was the dress the wrong color or something?' he said.

Another rising of tears swelled in her eyes, but she fought it back. 'No.' she said, her voice breaking. 'It was perfect - everything was perfect.'

He sounded baffled. 'Then, what's the sitch?'

'Ron...' she said breathlessly. 'I... I don't think we should date anymore.'

Ron stood there, his mouth hanging open, looking as if she had kicked him. 'Whuh... _why_?' he said.

She gritted her teeth, convinced that she was doing the right thing for him. 'I just... don't think we're right for each other.' she said.

Ron was spluttering. 'Kim... _why_?' he said again. 'If it's something I forgot about... or something I did - whatever it is, I can change!'

Kim had to fight to keep herself from crying. It was so totally _Ron_. All the guilt coursing through her, and he was asking if there was anything _he_ could do. How could she explain that his every generous word felt like a dagger piercing her? How could she help him understand that it was his kindness that was hurting her now?

She wasn't sure she could explain or understand it herself. All she knew was that the more Ron tried to make her feel better, the worse she felt. His love felt poisonous to her, because it was a gift she didn't deserve. 'Ron _please_.' she said. 'There's nothing you can do because it's _not_ about you... it's about me.' she realized how stupid it sounded the instant she said it, but there was really no other way she could think of.

Ron's voice sounded numb. 'Kim, getting back to you was what kept me from losing it in the Spirit World.' he said. 'Now you're saying that all along you were just going to dump me?'

'No!' said Kim. She couldn't let him walk away with a thought like that. 'This isn't about me dumping you, or me wanting to see anyone else. There _isn't_ anyone else. It's got nothing to do with crushes or Bonnie... It's just... complicated.'

Ron shook his head. 'I thought love was complicated, but not _this_ complicated!' he said. 'I could laugh it off when all the other girls at school said the same thing! But not now - not like this! After everything we've just been through?'

'Please don't be angry.' she said, and her voice was a whisper. 'And please don't hate me. But I can't be your girlfriend anymore.'

Ron was shaking his head, looking baffled and desperate. 'Kim...' he started forward, holding out his hand.

_And Kim saw Ron holding out his hand to her while she turned and was walking away in the dojo in Middleton, just after threatening his place on the team if he didn't step up... _She flinched and pulled away. She couldn't bear to be close to him the way she felt now. 'Ron, please don't!' she said. And a pair of thick tears escaped her efforts to hold them back, rolling down her face before she could wipe them away.

Ron halted in mid-step. He looked more stunned by the sight of her crying than anything else. His mouth opened, then closed, as if he wanted to say something. But her tears seemed to have conveyed to him what she couldn't say in words.

His face was pale as he turned and walked slowly from the room. He looked more slumped and defeated than she had ever seen. He looked back at her, his hand on the door frame. 'If... this is what you really want.' he said, and his voice was pleading, 'If it's what you _really _want... Then... I won't.'

He paused. 'Kim, I don't want us to be together because I _argued_ you into it. I spent enough time in the Spirit World to know that's not what either of us would want. I'd fight an army of _monkeys_ for you. But I can't fight _you_.'

Kim bit her lip. It was all she could do to keep herself from running up to him and throwing her arms around him, but she stayed motionless and silent. With a last pitiful look, Ron closed the door behind him. She heard his footsteps moving away and the closing of another door. He was gone.

Kim turned and walked to her bed, sinking down onto the sheets. Then she rolled over onto her stomach, buried her face in the pillow and burst into tears.

_Coming Soon:  
Chapter 37  
What is a place where weak metals go to become stronger?_

_ Author: Some of you are probably looking at this chapter and wagging your heads and thinking, 'Didn't this guy say over and over that he wasn't going to do anything to interfere with established KP canon? What the heck is this? He broke up Kim and Ron? Why that... no good... so-and-so! (Or something like that) Well - how do you know this wasn't my plan all along? To trick you into thinking that my stories would fit right into the KP universe without any major changes?_

_ You'll have to go through the previous chapters and pick out any clues you might have missed :) But notice - the end of this chapter does NOT say 'The End'. And the story's not officially over until the words 'The End' show up. So no, it's not over yet. Are Kim and Ron broken up for good? Will the Mystical Monkey return? Will Team Probable have anything to do with all this? Don't miss a finale so syrupy you'll be blowing your noses with pancakes!_


	38. Ch 37: Crucible

A Friend In Darkness  
All Things Probable 3

A Kim Possible Fanfiction  
by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and its affiliates, etc. etc.

_**Author Note: **__ To get the full experience for the scene in the hollow, I advise listening to the Enya song, 'Hope Has A Place' beforehand, which can be found on youtube with a title search.__  
Believe me, you won't regret it..._

Chapter 37  
_Crucible_

_**Part I:  
Absence Makes the Heart Growth Flounder**_

Kim glumly closed her locker at Middleton High. It was two days since she broke up with Ron, and the school rumor mill had been predictably buzzing. People would stop talking when she walked by, then start again after she'd passed. She didn't know if what they were saying about her was good or bad. But even if it was bad, she thought she deserved it.

It wasn't long after Ron had left that Kim realized she hadn't taken several things into account - first on the list being how this would affect their friendship. Kim was too ashamed to ask him to just hang out as a friend. And she knew he would be too timid to bring it up. He respected her feelings too much - it was one of the things that had made him so great.

But there was also the question of missions. Sooner or later, she was bound to get another one. And having Ron come along on a mission would feel so awkward she wasn't sure she could face it. It was too soon.

She turned from her locker and saw Ron heading down the hall to his classes with a jumble of books under his arm. They shared a painful glance at each other before he turned a corner and passed out of sight. It had been like that the whole time. Both of them were too afraid to speak to each other for fear of making things worse. So neither of them said anything at all.

And she felt doubly guilty, because she was sure he was having a rough time with all the homework Barkin had dumped on him. And she had said she would help him - but that was before she had broken up with him. She still wanted to help, but how could she?

She missed his company - not just as a boyfriend, but as a friend who was a boy. And she had to keep a tissue handy to dab her eyes, sometimes even during classes. There had been no hiding it from Monique. She cornered her during lunch hour of the first day after the break up.

'Girl, are you _nuts_?' she had said, her voice low and her back hunched, trying to screen everyone else in the cafeteria from the conversation. Kim only shook her head. 'Kim, we spent the last three-odd weeks trying to find Ron so you could be with him again!' she said. 'What happened?'

'I can't talk about it.' said Kim.

'_Can't_?' said Monique. 'Girl, you can do _anything_. You know you can talk to me.'

'Not about this.' said Kim, shaking her head. The visions of her spiritual journey were simply too personal.

'Did he do the bon-diggety dance in public again or something?'

'No!' Kim said quickly. 'It wasn't anything he did. Please just... don't ask me.' Kim could see the cogs working in Monique's brain, using what little information she had given away. _'If it wasn't Ron, then it must have been...'_

But Monique couldn't think of any way to ask it directly. Kim had just laid it down, and Monique couldn't press the subject any further without going against her wishes. Which brought the conversation to a halt and left only silence filled with confusion, curiosity and a desire to help with no way to act on it. And it didn't help when Ron walked by at that very moment. He looked wistfully at the table where Kim and Monique were sitting, then wandered off looking for an empty spot somewhere else.

Kim's eyes followed after him until she saw Monique's hand right in front of her face, her fingers snapping. Monique sighed. 'Girl, you miss him.' she said. 'You think I can't tell? Just _talk_ to him. You've been friends since Pre-K. Whatever's goin' on, you know he'd understand.'

Kim winced. She knew Ron had seen her battle with Kim-i-i. Had he seen any of the other things that Kim had seen on her spiritual journey? In a way, she knew he had. He had been the central figure of each vision - both he and she had lived through each of them. But to have seen them all in that context, realizing exactly what they meant, how shabby she had treated him... The thought of it filled her with shame. 'I just can't.' she said helplessly, looking over to where Ron was still looking for an empty seat. 'I can't.'

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Ron was having his own issues to deal with. Everywhere he went, he heard similar whispers and muttered comments. _'Kim Possible finally dumped Ron.'_ As he went from class to class, he was almost sure he'd seen some of the students putting away betting ledgers as he approached. He wouldn't have been surprised. They'd probably been running odds on their relationship from the day he and Kim had shown up at Junior Prom holding hands.

He'd been let down by girls before, and he'd heard all the old lines. 'I like you as a friend', 'you're like a brother', 'it's just not working out', 'I'm busy that night' and a host of others. But there was something about breaking up with Kim that made it much worse. At least with other girls he could fool himself into believing their excuses because he didn't know them all that well. Maybe they really _were_ 'busy that night'.

But he _knew_ when Kim was busy and when she wasn't. They knew pretty much everything about each other. And so in his mind, there was no getting around the fact that Kim just didn't want him around anymore.

He hadn't talked to anyone about it, not even his parents. He didn't want anyone to think Kim was being a jerk, and he wasn't going to do anything to feed the rumor mills at school. He bore it in silence.

But he hadn't been able to lie to Felix. Felix had known something was up on the very first day, and it only took him a little bit of fishing to get more information. 'You and Kim broke up?' he said, shaking his head. 'Dude - that's _harsh_! I was going to ask you to go doubles with me and Zita next week.'

Ron rubbed the back of his head, poofing up his cowlick. 'Yeah, I'm gonna have to bail on that one.' he said. 'It'd be kind of awkweird, you know?'

Felix was still shaking his head as if in denial. 'Dude - how'd it happen?' he said. 'For three weeks, she was focused on finding you like a laser beam. It was all she talked about. Now she just ups and says 'it's splitsville'? It's not another guy, is it? Because if it is, then that's more than harsh, it's brutal!'

Ron shrugged. 'I don't think so.' he said. 'But... maybe. I don't know. She wouldn't _explain_ anything.'

Felix drummed his fingers on the dashboard of his high-tech wheelchair. 'Girls.' he said. 'What's the deal with them?'

Ron couldn't answer, and even Rufus was holding up his paws in helpless bewilderment.

( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - )

The second day was ending, and Kim was in cheer practice. Part of a cheerleader's training was to look happy and enthusiastic on the field. You had to be radiant. Even when it was raining, or snowing and you were freezing or soaked to the skin. Through spills, bumps, bangs and abrasions, you had to keep smiling. That applied to bad moods as well. Even if the very last thing in the world you felt like doing was smiling and cheering, you had to do it anyway. It was just part of the job.

But the peppy tune that was playing while they practiced was the very opposite of how she felt. She felt dull, listless and miserable, and it was carrying over into her performance.

The squad formed a perfect pyramid, their voices thundered through the gym. _'Goooo Mad Dogs! Gooooo Mad Dogs! Gooooooooo Mad Dogs!'_

And Kim vaulted to her place at the top of the pyramid, raising one arm. 'Go Mad Dogs.' she said in a flat monotone.

And the routine ended as if someone had just dragged the needle across and old-style record player. The rest of the squad dismantled the pyramid with mutters and sighs. Bonnie however, was a bit more vocal. Once everyone was back on the ground, she started.

'We've been doing this for like an _hour_.' She said it indignantly, as if cheer practice and being popular was keeping her from other things she'd rather be doing. 'Aren't you always the one saying _'head in the game'_? Where's _your_ head today? Because it's sure not here.'

'Don't start with me today, Bonnie.' said Kim, but she sounded more tired than angry.

'Why, because you're still pining over your ex?' said Bonnie mercilessly. 'You're the one who dumped _him_, right? So why are you wasting everybody's time acting like it was the other way around?'

Everyone in the squad winced as Kim and Bonnie glared at each other. But again, Kim looked like she was too tired to argue, or that she just didn't care. 'Fine.' she said. 'Practice is over for today.' Then she stumped off to the showers. None of the rest of the squad followed her.

Once Kim had gone out of sight, Tara rounded on Bonnie. 'What is _with_ you?' she hissed.

Bonnie was examining her fingernails and looking totally detached. 'I don't know what you're talking about.' she said, and it sounded like she really didn't.

'She and Ron _broke_ _up_.' Tara said. 'Show a little sensitivity!'

'I _know_ they broke up. Why all the drama?' said Bonnie. 'You're acting like it was a bad thing. All that happened was that Kim wised up and sent Ron to loserville where he belongs. He's back with _his_ people, and Kim doesn't have to confuse anyone by dating a _geek_. It's just the food chain re-establishing itself. Kim should be celebrating instead bringing down everyone else with her moping.'

Tara glared like she couldn't beleive what she was hearing. Then her face hardened. 'Do you remember how you fell apart when Brick dumped you like a sack of garbage?' she said.

Bonnie's face reddened and suddenly her attention was focused completely on Tara. 'Yes.' she said with a low, dangerous growl. 'And I thought it was agreed that we would never speak of it again.'

'Well, did Kim gloat and say Brick was better off without you? Did Kim say you deserved what you got? Did she take it out on you, even after you kissed Ron right in front of her?'

'Noooo.' said Bonnie slowly, her teeth gritted. 'And I'll thank you not to mention _that_ again either!'

'Kim even helped you find a new BF.' said Tara. 'So for once in your life - will you just _shut up?'_ And she headed off to the shower room.

Bonnie's mouth was hanging open. 'Oh you did _not_ just tell me to shut up!' she said. But Tara did not answer or look back. 'Oh you are _not_ walking away from me!' Bonnie said.

One by one, the rest of the squad filed out of the gym until Bonnie was standing alone. She shook her head. 'I can't believe you just walked away from me...' And her voice echoed in the now empty gym.

( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - )

After practice, the football team trooped into the boys' lockers. All except for a few. Ron stayed on the bench, acting as if he hadn't heard the whistle ending practice. Nick Tragg, Matt and Cliff hung back as well. 'We sacked you twice, Stoppable.' said Nick. 'Normally we can't lay a finger on you. What's the deal?'

Ron winced, nursing bruises around his ribcage. 'Sorry guys.' he said. 'I guess there's not much hustle in my bustle today.'

'I know what's wrong.' said Matt, using his voice which was as dense and muscular as he was himself. 'He's off his game 'cuz Possible dumped him.'

'Oh yeah.' said Cliff. with a forced nonchalance. 'I heard rumors - that true?'

Ron sighed. 'Well, yes. But don't say it like_ that_!' he answered.

'Tough break, Stoppable.' said Nick. 'But cheer up. Now that you're on the team, you'll have plenty of girls to choose from.'

'Yeah,' Matt guffawed. 'Man, being on the team is like _girl_-nip or something.'

Ron hadn't considered that. He was the team's star running back after all. And it wasn't just cheerleaders - lots of girls admired the football team, even if it was for shallow reasons. But he didn't like to think about finding another girl so soon, like picking up a pebble on a beach. 'Uh, can we talk about something else?' he said.

'Hey, Senior Prom is coming up fast.' said Cliff, shrugging. 'Might as well find some new arm-candy.'

Ron had almost fogotten about Senior Prom with all the other things that had happened. The thought of going with someone else left him feeling totally flat, but he knew the team wouldn't leave him alone until he said something. 'Yeah, I'll get right on that.' he answered weakly.

'That's the spirit.' said Nick. 'Let's hit the showers - you coming, Stoppable?'

Ron shrugged. 'In a minute.'

'Suit yourself.' said Nick, and he started jogging off the field.

But Cliff was scratching his head, looking even more like a gorilla than usual. 'Speaking of Prom... does this mean Possible's available?' he said.

Ron winced and felt his face get hot, ready to rush to Kim's defense. But then he remembered that Kim didn't need 'defending' from people asking her out. With a hollow voice, he answered. 'I guess so.'

'All _right_!' said Cliff, and he and Matt high-fived each other before walking off.

Ron felt sick. It certainly hadn't taken them long to try and move in. But he no longer had any claim on Kim's affection. She was free to turn it to anyone she liked. He allowed himself a bitter chuckle, knowing that both Matt and Cliff's dealings with girls was at least as boorish and clueless as Brick's had been. _'I wonder if Kim will punch them through a window?' _ he thought with a joyless smile. Then he remembered with a jolt that as clueless as Brick had been, he _had_ dated Bonnie for a long time. Clearly, thick-headedness wasn't a disqualifier for getting dates with cheerleaders. And had his own dealings with Kim when they were dating been any less clueless? He couldn't honestly say that he had been any better.

He kicked his heels idly on the bench, staring across the empty field with its gently waving grass. _'Maybe next time, It'll be different.' _he thought. _'For whoever I wind up dating.'_ but still, he could only picture Kim's face.

_'Stoppable!'_

Ron flinched, catapulting himself from the bench and landing with a thud on the grass. As he scrambled to his feet, he saw Mr. Barkin standing in front of him, glaring. He wondered for a moment how a man so muscular could move with such stealth.

'I heard about your recent break-up.' he said, and while his voice was still stern, it was slightly _less_ stern than usual, which Ron guessed was his way of trying to sound gentle. 'It's never easy, kid. My sympathies. If you ever need to talk about it, my door is open.'

'Uh... thanks Mr. B.' said Ron warily. 'But I'm not really feeling _talky_ yet.'

'I understand.' said Mr. Barkin. 'Fortunately, I've discovered a sure-fire way to ease the pain, and I'm willing to share the secret with you.'

Ron brightened. Anything that might help ease the emptiness he was feeling, even if it was an idea from Mr. Barkin, was something that grabbed his interest. 'Really?' he said.

Mr. Barkin nodded. 'Really.' he said. Then he lifted a sheaf of papers and handed it to Ron.

Ron's jaw dropped. '_More homework_?' he wailed. 'Aw, _man_...!'

Mr. Barkin patted Ron on the shoulder. 'Believe me, there's nothing that solves life's problems better than solving _school_ problems.' he said. 'It helps keep things in perspective. An hour or so working on these, and you'll be right as rain.'

As Mr. Barkin left the field, Ron had to admit, the sudden addition of homework had made him forget about Kim for a few seconds. Finally he made his way to the lockers, wondering if he'd wind up doing homework for the rest of his life to try and forget Kim.

_**Part II:  
Spirit Whirled**_

The places where spiritual entities resided were beyond mere description. Most people who encountered a spirit being, in their linear way of thinking, somehow imagined that such beings faded in and out of existence completely, unless they were interacting with a mortal. Only then could they 'exist', in the minds of mortals, because only then were they visible.

It was a short-sighted, ignorant and naive way of looking at things, sniffed the Mystical Monkey. But mortal minds simply couldn't comprehend infinity. Mortals preferred a room with four walls close around them when contemplating the eternities, and most of them could only understand the things they could see and touch.

The Mystical Monkey had existed for eons before Kim Possible, before Toshimiru, before Japan. And he would exist long after they were all gone. His dealings with mortals were brief and limited, and as such, they were the stuff of myth and legend. But at the moment, he was gazing with his vision at Kim Possible, as she wandered through her days with a grey cloud about her. And at Ron, who was similarly veiled, as if the darkness he had endured in the Spirit World had somehow followed him, though Ron could no longer see it.

'Oh dear.' The Mystical Monkey shook his head. 'She learn her lesson, but now she taking it too far. Does this girl ever do _anything_ half way? I'm a spiritual entity with the wisdom of the ages and the fury of the ancients. I can't believe the fate of the world depend on me playing _date doctor_ to a pair of teenagers - what a life!' He sighed and squared his shoulders. 'I guess I better go talk to her and straighten this out...'

The Great Bear Spirit was also there, seeing, hearing, and encompassing the same things. His voice rumbled and he shook his head. _'That may not be necessary.'_ his deep voice boomed, though his jaws did not open. _'If I am correct, events have been set in motion that should resolve things.'_

The Mystical Monkey stared up at the Great Bear curiously. 'What going on?' he said. 'You supposed to be the flashy, theatrical one. _I_ the quiet, smart one. What you got cooking?'

The Great Bear merely stared off into the distance. _'Let us wait a bit and see.'_ his voice rumbled.

( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - )

Grimm was walking Rhonda home after school. They were making headway on Rhonda's homework, though it took him a lot of effort to keep focused on the assignments rather than sitting close to Rhonda. Having spent a month with her missing, he was feasting on the sensation of having her there again. But as much as he wanted to sit next to her while doing the homework, and hold her close, he resisted.

There was, after all, a _lot_ of homework, and one of his many life philosophies gleaned from studying Tai Shing Pek Kwar was, _the time for fun is when the work is done_. So he focused his energy on helping Rhonda get caught up - so that when all the homework was out of the way, he could turn his attention to her properly.

'History tonight.' he said. 'And an essay on Native America - well, _that_ one should be a snap. You've lived some of the legeds just over the last few weeks. Should be interesting to describe...' he trailed off.

But again, Rhonda did not rise to the bait. She had been tight-lipped on what she had experienced in the Spirit World since she got back. She mumbled and half-nodded without looking at him as they reached the sidewalk near her house. 'So you'll be over after dinner?' she said.

'Yeah, I...' he started, but then his communicator beeped. He fished it from his hip pouch and turned it on in one practiced movement. 'What's the sitch, Jade?' he said. 'I thought we were putting jobs on hold until after everything worldwide is back to normal.'

'Not reallya _job_.' said Jade's voice. 'More like a follow-up. I just had word from the Middleton based Irregulars. It looks like Possible and Stoppable have broken up.'

Grimm didn't say anything for several seconds. Neither did Rhonda, though she was holding her school books more tightly. At last, Grimm spoke one word. _'Details.'_

Jade leaned her head. 'Only know what they heard from the school grapevine. That Possible was the dumper, and Ron the dumpee. No one knows how it went down except Kim and Ron, and they ain't talkin'.'

Grimm's eyes were unfocused, but gleaming. 'Stay on it.' he said. 'We'll be in touch soon.' And he turned off the communicator.

'They broke up?' Rhonda said quietly. 'Why? They just got back home, they just went through all that misery...'

Grimm didn't answer. He looked surprised, delighted, and also relieved - as if he had just won a lottery jackpot. 'It's over.' he said quietly. 'We _won_! With Kim and Ron breaking up, they're not a _team_ anymore!'

He whooped and gave Rhonda a quick hug, not noticing the ashen look on her face. 'This couldn't have worked out any better if we'd planned it!' he said, smirking. 'The coffin is already shut - we just have to nail it and throw on some dirt. Whatever else may come out of that business with the golems, Team Possible is _finished_.'

He headed towards the sidewalk, talking almost to himself. 'We need to get to Jade's place.' he muttered. 'Communications are still spotty, so her network is the best bet to coordinate things. Now that Kim's dumped Ron, all we need is to have the Irregulars do some subtle sabotage. Then we get each of them thinking that the other is behind it as revenge for the breakup. It won't be long before we have them at each others throats!'

He turned his head, expecting to see Rhonda walking beside him. But she wasn't there. He looked back and saw her, still on the walkway leading out from the porch. She looked strange. Her eyes were down, and she was frowning.

Grimm held out his hand. 'Come on, what are you waiting for?' he said. 'This'll be fun. We can pay them back for everything you had to go through in the Spirit World.'

Rhonda lowered her head. 'I... I can't.' she said, almost in a whisper.

Grimm stared. 'What?'

She looked up at him, and Grimm was astonished to see tears welling in the corners of her eyes. 'I don't want to 'get even' with Ron.' she said, and she sighed as if preparing to jump into cold water. 'You keep trying to get me to talk about what it was like in the Spirit World.' she said. 'Do you _really_ want to know? It was a nightmare. It felt like I was being roasted alive. And it was _my own_ bad vibes that made it that way. I was this close to snapping, and he saved me. He didn't have to, but he did. Even after everything we've pulled on them.'

Grimm shook his head. 'Babe, don't go _soft_ on me.' he said. 'They're not our _friends_. This is our chance to put and end to them as competitors once and for all! And because of a little spirit hocus-pocus you're saying you don't _want_ to?'

Rhonda wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. 'A _little hocus pocus_?' she said. 'Grimm, I'm not the smartest girl in school, and I can't think of how to explain it. You just don't know what it was like in that place! If it wasn't for Ron, I'd have gone crazy. He saved me, Grimm. I can't hurt him anymore. I _can't_.'

Grimm was stunned, and for the first time he could remember, he was at a _loss_ for words. 'Rhonda...?'

But Rhonda was turning away, heading down the sidewalk back to her house. 'I won't stop you from hurting them, Grimm.' she said, and her voice was quavering. 'But I won't help you.' Her front door opened, then closed, and she was gone.

Grimm stood dumbfounded and silent, looking at the empty stretch of sidewalk.

_'Unless you change with her, she will walk a different path from you.'_

Grimm clenched his fists, staring at the ground. Beside him was the road leading to Jade's house. And empty and silent was the path Rhonda had taken instead. He stood motionless, hovering between the two.

_**Part III:  
Machia-villain Schemes**_

Dinner at the Possible house was a subdued business, as it had been for the last two nights. Hardly anyone spoke, except to ask for dishes to be passed. And hardly any noise was made except for the clinking of utinsels on plates.

Kim was the reason. Mr. Dr. Possible was naturally reticent for any kind of emotional scene, and Kim was prone to fits of quiet sobs without warning. The problem was that everything reminded Kim of Ron. He had been so ingrained into her life, whether missions, or school or just hanging out, that his not being there made her think about him more than ever.

When he had been banished to the spirit world, it was one thing. Then he had been physically missing, but she had never really lost hope that she would find him. Now he was back, but his abscense was inflicted by herself.

Kim picked at her food, not really paying attention to anything. She wasn't at the dinner table - she was at the dinner table _without_ Ron. She wasn't in her house, she was in her house _without_ Ron. It seemed she wasn't doing anything anymore - she was just doing things without Ron. Suddenly she heard Tim muttering from off to the side.

'There's too much food.' he said, and he was right. Everyone had eaten, but there was still a goodly portion left over.

'Yeah.' said Jim. 'Normally Ron would...' but he trailed off, catching himself.

Kim put down her fork. 'May I be excused?' she said quietly, but she didn't wait for an answer. She swept out of the kitchen, heading for her room.

The Possibles who remained at the table stared after her. Mrs. Dr. Possible looked pained. Mr. Dr. Possible was quiet. Jim and Tim seemed uncomfortable for a second, then Jim sighed.

'Crying _again_?' he said.

Mrs. Dr. Possible glared at him sternly. 'Jim, be more considerate!'

'We _have _been!' said Jim. 'But she does that like every half an hour...'

'Then you should _know_ better than to bring up Ron when she's around.' said Mrs. Dr. Possible.

'But he was here all the time.' Tim protested. 'It's not like we can just pretend he never existed!'

'Well, you both have a point.' said Mr. Dr. Possible, standing up. 'I think it's time I had a talk with her - _without_ trying to foist her off on you.'

Mrs. Dr. Possible shook her head. 'Honey please - that could make things worse...'

Mr. Dr. Possible looked like he wanted to follow his wife's advice, but there was a determined gleam in his eyes and Mrs. Dr. Possible knew he would have to have his say. It wasn't often that he took the initiative in parenting discussions, but when he did, it was a sign that he was serious.

( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - )

Kim was in her room, lying on her bed, her face buried in the pillow, her hands clenching the soft corners. She kept telling herself over and over that she had done the right thing. But the ache of loss felt like a snarling animal inside her, biting and gnawing at her vitals.

_'I'm sorry Ron. I'm so sorry. But you're better off this way. I've done nothing but hurt you...' _She heard soft footsteps coming up the stairs to her loft. For a wild moment, she thought it was Ron.

'Kimmie-cub?' came the low, timid voice of her father.

Kim sat up, composing herself quickly, wiping her eyes. 'Hi Dad,' she said. 'Sorry about leaving dinner so fast.'

Dr. Possible stood looking at her, his face looking grave. 'I wanted to talk to you... about Ron.'

Kim hung her head, looking away. 'There's nothing to talk about.' she said. 'It's over.'

Dr. Possible sighed. 'Kimmie-cub, I can't stand to see you like this.' he said. 'I never thought I'd see the day when I'd be fighting to get you _together_ with a boy.'

Kim laughed shortly. 'Yeah, it's kind of weird isn't it?'

Dr. Possible smiled. 'I think I'm like every parent. When your little girl falls in love, it's a sign they're growing up - and that she's not a little girl anymore. But there comes a time in a parent's life when they have to accept it and let them go.'

'I understand that, Dad.' she said, frowning. 'That's why I had to let Ron go.'

Dr. Possible shook his head. 'Sorry there Kim. But you're wrong on that one. I've been watching you for two days now, and you've never been more miserable. You've got everything you ever had before, but I can tell just by looking that you _feel_ like you've lost it all. And there's only one thing missing - Ron Stoppable.'

Kim fought to control her tears, her lip trembling. Dr. Possible almost smiled, because she looked exactly as if she were doing her puppy-dog pout. 'Oh _dad_...' she said, her voice breaking. 'I miss him so much, it hurts all the time. But...' And she stopped herself, still not able to talk about her spiritual journey and what she decided it meant.

'But... what?' said Mr. Dr. Possible gently.

Kim shook her head, dashing away another tear.

Dr. Possible sighed. 'Well, I'm no rocket scientist Kim...' he said, then paused, blinking. 'Oh wait - I _am_ a rocket scientist! Anyhoo, I may not know what's going on with you at the moment. But I'm smart enough to know this - Ron's stuck with you through thick and thin, through the good times and the bad. He's gone through more for you than grown men twice his age would go through for a girl. Most other boys would have called it quits, but not him. And in my book - that says a lot.'

Kim had been staring at her knees. But as her father finished speaking, she turned to him, only to see that he was already going back down the stairs.

( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - )

Wade was poring over his keyboard, still trying to find a way to track down Riddleton. He saw little hope of it. Grimm's family had the might of the DOD behind them, but Wade had done the impossible before, and he wasn't ready to give up.

He saw a blinking cursor he'd set up for when Kim was calling. He hesitated a little before answering. _'Oh man,'_ he thought. _'I hope she doesn't want to ask advice about break ups...'_ And when he activated the chat function, he thought his fear was confirmed. Kim looked off. _Way_ off. Her eyes were puffy and she was wiping them.

'Wade? Can you meet me at Bueno Nacho? I need to talk to someone.'

Wade squirmed in his computer chair. 'Uhhh...' he said, casting about in his mind for an excuse to duck out, 'Well now's not really the best time...'

'Please, Wade.' she said, and even her voice sounded squeaky and strained. 'I need a friend.'

'I... uh... I mean... oooh...' Wade sputtered.

'Please and thank you.' she said. Then the screen went to black.

'Gah... whuh... mmmfff.' Wade ended, feeling trapped and helpless. He knew absolutely nothing about comforting a girl who had broken up. His own fumbling attempts at dating Monique came back to his mind. Why Kim was coming to _him_, he had no idea. After all, she'd had a front-row seat for the disaster with his Cupid Ray. Surely Monique would be better if Kim wanted _girl talk_ - or her mom - or even Bonnie? He'd even have recommended _Rufus_ rather than himself.

But Kim had been acting so bummed out lately, that he found himself leaving the house and heading to Bueno Nacho. It wasn't exactly a short walk, but he'd managed the hike to Club Banana well enough on Valentine's Day.

He was so distracted, wondering what he could possibly say to Kim, that he didn't notice two people falling in step behind him as he walked. He was passing by an alleyway between two buildings when he suddenly felt a hand clamp over his mouth. Strong arms were winding around him and someone had kicked his feet out from under him. He was being dragged into the alleyway, and he started to struggle, trying to free himself...

( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - )

Kim stayed in her room after her father had left, trying to take her mind off things by doing some homework. It wasn't working. She had written 'Ron' as the answer to several problems before she realized it, and was erasing them to start over again when she heard her Kimmunicator beeping. Wade's face blipped onto the screen.

'Hey Wade - what's the sitch?' she said.

Wade looked at her. 'How ya holding up, Kim?' he said softly.

Kim frowned. 'OK I guess.' she said.

'OK enough for a mission?' he looked at her curiously.

'Guess so.' she said.

'There's an infiltration and observation job Global Justice forwarded to me. They said they need a young girl who looks good in a formal dress.'

'That's mega-weird.' said Kim. 'Am I spying on another high school or something?'

'That's all I've got to go on right now, Kim.' said Wade, shrugging. 'They say they'll give me the details to pass along to you once you're there. In the meantime, they sent along a new covert surviellance device - check your pack.'

Kim looked in her backpack, and sure enough, she fished out an object that she didn't remember being there at the start of the day. 'Wade - _how_ do you keep getting stuff in my bags without me noticing?'

Wade looked a bit shifty for a second. 'I've... got sources.' he said, but didn't elaborate.

'Just stay out of my closet.' Kim grumbled. 'It was weird enough when Ron...' she stopped talking abrupty, for thinking about Ron triggered her sadness again. She turned her attention to what she was holding. It looked like a bracelet - decorative, but much heavier than it should have been. It looked familiar somehow. 'What is this thing?'

'It's called the Portable Audio/Visual Recording Apparattus Disguised As Jewelry - or the PAVRADAJ.' said Wade, looking excited. 'It's loaded with cameras, microphones and scanners - just the ticket for gathering data in a covert setting.'

Kim slid it warily over her left wrist. 'Well, I hope it goes with my dress.' she said. 'How do I turn it on?'

'No need.' Wade grinned. 'It uploads remote to my computer automatically. No buttons, noises or beeps that might tip anyone off! I'm feeding the coordinates of the drop to your Kimmunicator. Global Justice says timing's important - no earlier and no later.'

Kim checked the data on her screen. 'I'm on it.' she said. 'And... thanks Wade. I could use the distraction.'

'Good luck, Kim.' he said, then the screen blipped off.

Kim took off the PAVRADAJ and covered it with her pillow. She trusted Wade not to look while she was changing, but if the thing really _was_ recording all the time, she'd just as soon make sure that the cameras couldn't see anything.

Kim sighed, thinking of the dress Ron had tried to give her in the treehouse - it would have been great for this mission. Instead she fished out her Homecoming dress and smoothed out some of the wrinkles. _'Time to get back in the saddle.'_ she thought, glumly.

( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - )

In her darkened computer room, Jade shut off the simulator which had projected Wade's face and voice through her communicator. She had stolen the technology from Dr. Drakken during one of their jobs, and it came in handy for this operation. 'Done and done, G-Man.' she said. 'I sent the other message too. He fell for it hook, line and sinker.'

Grimm stepped forward from a shadowed corner, smiling. 'How about Wade?' he said.

'A couple of the Irregulars have him.' Jade said. 'They'll keep him under wraps until its all over.' She sighed doubtfully. 'Grimm, are you _sure_ you want to go through with this?'

'Oh yeah.' said Grimm, his eyes gleaming. 'By the time I'm finished, Team Possible won't know what hit them.'

_**Part IV  
Fireworks At Last**_

Kim parked the _Sloth_ by the side of a road. It was dark, with stars beginning to peer out from behind the curtain of twilight that was deepening as night fell. She got out of the car and looked around. She was near the outskirts of Upperton, next to what looked like a garden park. But with night falling, it seemed to be empty. There were rising, grassy hills and trees, but no buildings within sight. There seemed to be a hillside a few moments walk into the park.

Her Kimmunicator beeped as she turned it on. 'Wade, are you _sure_ this is the right place?'

Wade shrugged. 'This is where Global Justice said to be.' he answered. 'They said to go in until you hit a clearing. There's some kind of secret outdoor gathering of smugglers, crime bosses and mercenaries. They're supposedly hatching schemes to take advantage of the disruption in global communications. Your undercover ID is Donna Prima, a visiting representative from the Yamaw Corporation, a subsidiary of HenchCo. Global Justice says to just blend in and use the bracelet to record as much as you can. Once you've got enough intel, they'll do the rest.'

'All right, I'm going in.' said Kim.

'Going radio silent.' said Wade. 'Good luck.'

As Kim went further into the park, she felt a growing sense of wariness. Not because she was worried about blending in with anyone she might bump into, but because there didn't seem to be anyone to 'blend in' with. She could hear no voices, and saw no signs that anyone else was about.

She hiked to the top of a low hillside, her heels punching through the grass and making the climb awkward. She reached the top and looked around. Below her was a sort of hollow - a bowl like depression. The area was lined with trees, except for two hillsides, one where she had just entered, and another across the way.

But there was still no one else to be seen. She tried beeping Wade on her Kimmunicator, but no one answered. Years of missions and fighting villains was making her 'trap' instincts kick in. But she still couldn't see anyone else around, not even any poorly constructed doomsday machines.

She stayed tense as she walked down into the hollow, determined to check things out before she went back to the _Sloth_. It was even darker in the hollow, but there was enough light to see for a few feet around. She found nothing after a few minutes of searching and was getting ready to turn back, thinking of some choice words she might have for Wade once she was back home.

But she suddenly felt a prickling at the back of her neck that told her she was _not_ alone. She was near the center of the hollow, where there were only a few trees scattered widely around. But _something_ was getting nearer.

She slunk to the side of a tree and put the trunk between herself and the unknown intruder. Whoever it was, they were making a lot of noise, so they obviously couldn't see any better in the dimness than she could. After a few moments, the sound of human footsteps was only a few feet away, and getting closer...

She leaped out, her fist raised, and bore down on the intruder. There was a loud wail, and a figure cringed in front of her. She stopped in mid-punch, her free hand on the collar of a tuxedo jacket, and gaped.

'_Ron_?' she said.

'Kim?' said Ron, looking relieved and terrified.

_'What are you doing here_?' they both said at once. Then they both said, 'Wade sent me!'

Kim let go of Ron and put a hand over her eyes, shaking her head. 'All right,' she said. 'What did _Wade_ tell you?'

Ron looked very uncomfortable, but answered. 'He called and said there was a spy mission, and that you were too busy. He just said to put on my tux and show up here.'

Kim fumed. It wasn't like Wade to do something like this. Her eyes fell on the thick bracelet she was wearing, and she saw one around Ron's wrist as well. 'And did he also tell you to wear _this_?' she said, reaching down and pulling up Ron's hand.

'Yeah...' Ron started, but they were both interrupted by a loud humming.

As soon as her hand had gotten close to Ron's, Kim felt the bracelet suddenly tighten, closing firmly around her wrist with a whirring sound. Ron's bracelet made the same noise. Before either of them could react, they felt a powerful tugging, and the bracelets were pulled together. It was then that Kim recognized what these bracelets were. The look was a bit modified, but she was sure that they were Electro-Magnetic manacles.

'Hey!' said Ron. The manacles clanked loudly in the still air of the hollow as they met.

Both Kim and Ron pulled with all their strength, but they were now effectively handcuffed together. Their hands were actually touching. Kim stared into his eyes, shocked. 'You and Wade _planned_ this!' she said angrily. 'To try and talk me out of breaking up with you!'

Ron spluttered, shaking his head. 'No I didn't!'

'Oh come on!' said Kim, looking around. '_Be sure to wear a formal dress?_ And you just happen to show up in a tux? And we both just _happen_ to be wearing these cuffs?'

'No!' said Ron again, still trying to pull loose. 'I promise, I accepted that you broke up with me...' Ron's manacle made a loud buzzing sound. '_Ow_!' he shouted. 'Hey, that hurts!'

Kim kept staring at him, fighting to pull their wrists apart. 'You... jerk! Ron, I _hate_ you!' Then Kim's manacle buzzed, and she felt a jolt of electrical current shoot through her arm. '_Ouch!_' she squealed. 'Look - just get these things off!'

'I can't!' Ron said, helplessly. 'I swear, I didn't do any of this...'

'I don't believe you!' Kim started, but she was interrupted as her manacle buzzed again. 'Ow! Ron, _please_!'

Ron stared curiously at his manacle. 'Wait a minute.' he said. Then he looked like he had just understood something. He said hesitantly, 'I hate Nacos.' His Electro-Magnet buzzed again. 'Ow!' He shook his hand tenderly. 'KP, I think these things are rigged to go off whenever we tell a_ lie_.'

Kim looked at her own manacle. 'Bonnie is my best friend.' she said. 'Ouch!' she yelped as another jolt shocked her. They stood looking at each other. 'So... now what?' she said.

Ron was staring at her, his expression suddenly very piercing. 'Kim, mine went off when I said I accepted the break up.' His manacle buzzed quickly and he yelped again. 'OK, OK! I admit it, I lied!' he said. 'I haven't accepted it. I don't know if I ever will. When you did it, I asked you why. I want to ask again. Why did you break up with me?'

Kim bit her lip. 'I... I told you. I just don't think we're right for each other... _Ouch!'_ she flinched as her manacle buzzed and shocked her.

'Kim, I still love you.' Ron said. 'Please - tell me the truth. Do you love me?'

Kim stood fidgeting. 'N...no...' she said, timidly. Her manacle gave a loud, prolonged buzz. '_Ow_!'

Ron had never looked so happy to see her in pain. 'I _knew_ it!' he said, jumping up and down and punching his free hand in the air. 'Come on, KP. Fess up - why did you think you had to dump me?'

Kim tried with all her might to focus, to concentrate, to keep whatever it was that was setting off the Electro-Magnets from seeing past her. 'The food chain...' she began, but there was a loud buzz. _'Ouch!'_ She panted, trying again. 'I just think we should see other... _Ow!_' she jumped as another jolt shot through her arm. 'I like you but not in that way..._Ow!'_ Her bracelet kept buzzing insistently and finally she couldn't stand it any longer.

'Stop it!' she shrieked. 'Just _stop it_! I broke up with you because I didn't think I was _good_ enough for you!' Her Electro-Magnetic manacle stayed silent.

Ron's mouth fell open in amazement. 'You... thought _that_?' he said. 'For gosh sakes KP, _why_?'

She felt her lip trembling. She didn't want to answer, but she couldn't lie with the manacle on, and she couldn't leave because they were locked together. And she couldn't simply stand there and say nothing. She took a deep breath. 'Ron, when you were in the Spirit World, I had to hang with Grimm.' she said. 'I saw how he treats his friends, and it got me thinking about how I've been treating my friends, and I always found myself coming up short...' Her manacle remained silent, and she pressed on.

'Then I communed with the Mystical Monkey, and everything he said made me feel worse and worse about how I've treated you over the years. And then you were standing there in front of me with that Three-quarter-versary present, and all I could think about was how horrible I've been and I couldn't take it Ron, I just couldn't...!' There were no buzzes or jolts from her manacle as she spoke. She turned her head away from him. She wanted to walk away, and found herself trying before she felt a jerk in her arm and remembered that she and Ron were still locked together.

She spoke quietly, not looking at him. 'I've lied to you, I've ditched you, I always secretly thought I was better than you.' She paused, thinking back to the moment when Ron had returned. 'But when I saw our spirits, yours was so much _brighter_ than mine.' she whispered. 'You deserve someone who's as bright as you are, Ron. You deserve someone better. I really think you should date someone besides me...' At this last sentence, there was a loud buzz. _'Ouch!'_

Ron smiled faintly as Kim shouted to the night sky, looking around wildly. 'OK whoever's doing this, _knock it off_!' she shouted.

'Kim.' Ron said, and he laid his other hand on her shoulder. 'I spent a lot of time in the Spirit World. I was there with you sometimes. When you saved me, I could see your spirit just as easily as you saw mine. Do you want to know what _I_ saw?'

He held both her hands, looking straight into her eyes. 'I thought that _you_ were brighter than I was.' he said. 'Honest KP. It looked like someone had carved a statue of you made of sunlight.'

Kim shook her head, but Ron's manacle hadn't gone off. He was telling her the truth. 'How is that possible?' she said. 'I thought _you_ were brighter than me.'

Ron was smiling strangely, as if he had just solved a puzzle on the marquee at Riddleton High. 'If there's one thing I learned while I was in the Spirit World, it's that we wind up punishing ourselves a lot more than other people want to punish us. Maybe we both thought we weren't as bright as the other because that's just how we _felt_.'

Kim stared at his arm with jealousy as his manacle remained silent. 'I didn't see everything you saw when you were with the Mystical Monkey.' he said. 'But believe it when I say this Kim - you're the best thing that's ever happened to me. You've made me wish I was better than I was. You made me want to work harder and try harder than I ever thought I could, even when everyone else was ready to write me off as a lost cause.'

Kim started shaking her head, but Ron laid his hand on her cheek and turned her head so she was looking into his eyes. She felt herself weakening as he gazed at her. 'If you think my spirit is bright Kim, it's bright because of _you_. How could you think that breaking up with the girl who inspired it all would be _good _for me?'

Kim felt her voice growing lower, softer. 'Ron... I...'

But suddenly, the hollow around them was flooded with a soft light. There were lightposts set up around the rim of the dell, and they heard music playing. Kim hadn't noticed in the dark, but the space near where they were standing had a tall wooden pole, from which a mirrored disco ball was hanging. The lights cycled through several different colors in a revolving pattern, and the entire hollow suddenly looked like the dance floor of a prom as a slow number was played.

They were both suddenly aware that their hands were cuffed together in a perfect position for a slow dance. Ron smiled. 'Well, it's not exactly Prom.' he said quietly. 'But... how about a dance?'

Kim looked down. 'I don't think we should...' she started, but there was a jarring buzz and she yelped. Her jerking flinch pulled her into Ron's arms. Ron held her softly and she found herself putting her arm around his shoulder before she could stop herself. They stood silently for a moment, looking at each other. Then Ron led her into the gentle, swaying motions of a slow dance.

Before, she had been unable to even look him in the eyes. Now she couldn't stop. She felt almost hypnotized, realizing how very long it had been. The weeks he had been gone, then the shame she felt because of her spiritual journey. She had never realized how hungry she was just to _see_ him again. A voice was singing as the music played, a melodic, female voice that echoed through the hollow.

_One look at love, and you may see,  
it weaves a web over mystery...  
All raveled threads can rend apart,  
for hope has a place in the lover's heart..._

_ Whispering world, a sail of sighs,  
the ebb and the flow of the ocean tides..  
One breath, one word, may end or may start,  
a hope in a place of the lover's heart..._

_Look to love and you may dream  
and if it should leave, then give it wings  
but if such a love is meant to be  
hope is home, and the heart is free..._

Kim didn't really hear the singing. Her attention was focused on Ron. The look in his eyes, the warmth of his arms. But she did hear the next verses, which sank deep into her as she held him.

_ Under the heavens, we journey far,  
on roads of life, we're the wanderers...  
so let love rise, so let love depart,  
let hope have a place in the lover's heart..._

_Look to love and you may dream,  
and if it should leave, then give it wings,  
but if such a love is meant to be,  
hope is home, and the heart is free..._

The song went into a series of hauntingly beautiful chants which rose around them like a choir. Kim felt all her resistance crumbling. Tears rolled down her face and she clutched at him, holding him tight and drawing a joy from his closeness that banished every doubt from her rmind.

'I _love_ you Ron...' she sobbed, burying her face in his shoulder. 'I'm so sorry...'

Ron was holding her just as tightly, and she felt a tear from his eyes fall warm and thick onto her cheek. 'I love you too Kim...' he whispered. 'Please.. don't leave me again.'

'I'll always be there for you.' she said, and she felt so full of emotion she thought her heart would burst inside her. 'Always.'

_ Hope is home, and the heart is free..._

They kissed, long and slow. And Kim no longer felt any of the guilt or shame. She felt only happiness. Happiness that Ron was back. Happiness that the sitch was finally, truly over. Happiness to be holding him. To be close to him, to kiss him.

When they finally broke apart, she kept her face leaned against his. 'So does this mean we're not broken up anymore?' said Ron softly.

'Yes.' said Kim firmly, punching her hand against his shoulder. 'And _yes_, I want that night on the town! If its still open.'

'I'll make time somehow.' said Ron softly into her ear, sending tingles across her skin.

They shared another kiss when suddenly her Kimmunicator beeped on, and Wade's tinny voice sounded. 'Kim! Is everything all r... _woah_!' There was a thumping sound. Kim and Ron finally broke apart and Kim leaned her wrist up.

'Hey Wade.' she said dreamily. 'Guess what the sitch is?'

Wade was setting his chair back up and sitting in it. 'Sorry.' he said. 'I didn't know you and Ron were... uh... _locking lips_. Weren't you guys broken up or something?'

'That was _so_ five minutes ago.' Kim purred. Ron was simply looking in her eyes with an adorable, goofy smile.

'Oh... well... congrats.' he said, looking totally flummoxed. 'I just wasn't expecting...'

'Why are you so surprised?' said Ron. 'You're the one who set all this up.'

Wade's mouth fell open. 'I didn't _set up_ anything.' he said.

Kim and Ron both shook off the warm fuzzies they were feeling. 'Yes you did.' said Kim. 'You sent me out here, then you sent Ron.'

Wade was shaking his head. 'Noooo, I didn't.' he said. 'Don't get me wrong, I'd love to take credit for patching things up between you, but I've been busy fending off a pair of thugs.'

_'What?'_ said Kim.

'You were the one who called _me_.' said Wade. 'You said you wanted to talk about the breakup. And while I was on my way, I got nabbed by some guys near an alley downtown.'

Ron felt Kim's hand squeezing his. 'I never called you.' said Kim. 'What did they want?'

'They challenged me to the 'Chess Game Championship of the Universe'.'

'The _universe_?' said Ron. 'Since when does the universe have a chess league? So... what happened?'

'I totally clobbered them.' Wade shrugged. 'Then they said the usual stuff - that I just got lucky, that they'd beat me next time, then they ran off and left me in a warehouse across town. I only got home a few minutes ago.'

Kim shook her head. 'This is... _beyond_ mega-weird.' she said. 'Wade, I swear it was _you_ who called me.'

Wade blinked. 'Hold on - this isn't the first time someone's hijacked our comm system.' he said. 'Do you remember when Drakken used a computer program to trick you by impersonating me?'

Now Kim blinked. 'What are you saying?' she said. 'You think _Drakken_ set this up? That Drakken wanted me and Ron to go _dancing_?'

'Someone did.' said Wade. 'Because it sure wasn't me.'

'Well... since everything's cool now, who cares who it was?' said Ron suddenly.

For a minute, none of them spoke, their minds working. Another slow number had begun, and the lights around the hollow were shifting colors. Kim realized that she and Ron were still holding each other. 'See what you can find out Wade.' she said, smiling softly at Ron. 'Ron and I will stay here a while and... look for clues.' Then she shut off the Kimmunicator and pulled Ron into another kiss.

( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - )

From a sheltered, wooded bluff looking down into the hollow from some distance away, Grimm Probable stood with Rhonda Fatigable at his side, staring down at Kim and Ron as they kissed.

Rhonda shook her head in disbelief. 'Wow.' she said. 'That was amazing. I think when it's all over for us as mercenaries, you've got a brilliant career ahead as a matchmaker.'

Grimm sniffed. 'Get _real_.' he muttered, but held her hand.

'When you dragged me out here, I thought for sure you'd set up something to get to them and mess with their heads.' she said.

'You were right.' he snickered. 'In fact, I think this is the best head game I've ever pulled off.' Another schmaltzy song started playing through the speakers, and Kim and Ron started dancing as if they were in a ballroom, their eyes milked over as they looked at each other.

'The fireworks were a nice touch.' said Rhonda. 'I don't think they noticed it though.'

'Doubtful.' said Grimm. 'They're too twitterpated. They haven't even noticed the Electro-Magnets have deactivated.' He sighed. 'Well, there's at least two hours worth of music to keep them going. It'll be interesting to see if they stick around for the whole cycle.'

'You know this qualifies as a _good_ deed, right?' said Rhonda, looking slyly at him. 'Getting them back together when they were broken up?'

Grimm shrugged, still smirking. 'Come on.' he said, the sound of cunning returning to his voice. 'Didn't I tell you? They're more fun to hassle when they're together. And besides - who says I'm going good? Look at them - I reduced _both_ of them to tears. How many of Kim's enemies can say they've done that?'

Rhonda found herself smirking too. 'I'll pretend I believe you.' she said, taking his hand.

Grimm glanced at her. 'So you think I'm going good, huh?' he said. 'Well if that's true, then maybe I should give back all the money we've ever collected from our missions...'

'Are you _crazy_?' said Rhonda, hitting him in the shoulder. 'I haven't gone _that_ good!' Then she saw the playful, teasing gleam in his eyes and hit him again. 'You_ jerk_!' she said. 'Don't scare me like that...'

They found themselves in each others arms, their faces only a couple inches apart. 'So.. what _does_ the future hold for Team Probable?' she said, her voice going soft.

Grimm sighed. 'I'm not sure.' he said. 'But the one thing I do know is... we'll always be a team. Friends together?'

'Friends forever...' Rhonda whispered.

And unseen by Kim and Ron, who were again kissing tenderly in the hollow, two figures standing in the shadows were kissing as well.

_**Part VI:  
The Great River**_

The Mystical Monkey watched the proceedings in the hollow, tapping his bearded chin with a long, knobbed finger. 'You had more going on here than you want to admit, I think.' he said, turning to the Great Bear. 'It no accident you let Kim and Grimm be your agents after Chosen Ones banished - right?'

The Great Bear thrummed slowly, his gigantic form seeming both relaxed and content. _'As always, you see things keenly.'_ he rumbled. _ 'Is there not a legend among your followers about the great river?'_

'Yes.' said the Mystical Monkey. 'They say _time_ is a great river. It flow always - unchanging and true. And while the water flowing through river may never be the same, the river itself is always there.'

_'Their tales hold great truth. Time has marched forward, but the power of the Bear Preistess is still the same - as eternal as I am. But those who wield that power - I see a sameness in them which transcends time. The water of the river may be different now, but the river itself is unchanged. The new Bear Priestess is very different from Abish - but her tale is unfolding in much the same way.'_

'What you talking about?' said the Mystical Monkey. 'Rhonda and Abish _totally_ different! She _blonde_ for pete's sake!'

_'Abish was a reluctant Priestess - very much like Katasiistikoowa.'_ the Great Bear rumbled._ 'I, who knew them both well, see more kinship between them than you perhaps. And forgotten in the deeps of time is another kinship. Abish did many deeds, but always there was one by her side - a warrior shaman who fought alongside her and loved her. He was not a noble man in his beginnings - he loved glory and riches. But his love for Abish led him to join her in her greatest acts of heroism. I see that brave again - in Otaatoyiwa.'_

'What about Maze?' said the Mystical Monkey, his voice more serious.

The Great Bear heaved a long, low sigh. _ 'It is not too late for him to turn to the light. But I cannot turn him. He must turn himself. Yet I feel even now that his defeat his not humbled him. He has set his heart like a flint, and I fear he is past feeling. He will be devoured by his own hatred unless he can change.'_

The Mystical Monkey stared, scratching his chin. 'You still not telling me everything.' he said, a smiling edge to his voice. 'There a reason why you picked Grimm and Rhonda for this. Something to do with Kim and the Chosen One. Come on, furry guy - fess up!'

The Great Bear harummphed. _ 'One day I will learn how to conceal my devices from you, clever one.' _he said, sounding resigned. _ 'But yes. I knew that one day Mi'kksiistsikomma and Ipi'sskinao'siwa would experience this - that one day, one of them might try to seperate from the other. It is often so with the young, for they are short-sighted and not yet wise. Their minds change, or so they believe, and they act rashly on sudden thoughts.'_

'And you knew that Kim's spiritual journey might start her thinking she not good enough for Chosen One...'

_'Yes.'_ The Great Bear replied. _ 'One cannot pass though such suffering without looking for a cause. I was not sure that Mi'kksiistsikomma would be able to confront her inner demons without feeling unworthy. But in light of the coming storm, it was essential that she and Ipi'sskinao'siwa remain together. Under ordinary circumstances, such emotional turmoil might be too intense for them to overcome. There was only one way to get both of them to embrace the pain as a crucible that would forge a love even stronger than what they shared before.'_

The Mystical Monkey laughed, capering in a small circle. 'And so you get a master head-gamer on your side - someone who a genius at getting people to do things they don't want to do!' he said, 'Someone who force them back together and make them think it _thier_ idea! There only one guy in the world who that big a jerk!'

The Great Bear let out a breath that sounded almost like a chuckle. _ 'Yes. Their parents, their freinds, their loved ones were too close to them. They felt too much pity to take action. In the end, only one of her enemies, Otaatoyiwa, could save their relationship. The price I exacted from him when fighting the Golem was only the beginning of the thread that would lead to the redemption of Mi'kksiistsikomma's love for Ipi'sskinao'siwa.'_

The Mystical Monkey smacked the Great Bear lightly on the shoulder with his staff. 'You keep saying you wish you were smart as me.' he said, 'But you more cunning than you want to admit...'

_**Part V:  
Winding Down**_

It was nearly two hours later. Kim and Ron were driving back to Middleton in the _Sloth_. Ron's scooter was tied onto the rear bumper.

'Badical as it is to hold hands, I think you should keep them _both_ on the steering wheel until we get home.' said Ron.

Kim sighed, reluctantly taking her hand off of his. 'I'll have to talk to Wade about a better auto-pilot.' she said. 'So the driver and the passenger can...'

'Kim!'

'..hold hands.' she ended. She didn't take her eyes off the road, but she could tell that Ron was blushing furiously.

Rufus had been relaxing in Kim's purse for much of the drive. He suddenly poked his head out, holding a folded piece of paper aloft. 'Hmm-hmm!' he squeaked.

Ron unfolded it, and his jaw fell open. _'Woah_ - Kim!' he almost shouted. 'Is this for reals?'

'What?' she said, confused.

'This _check_!' Ron said. 'I mean - look at all the zeroes! It's not a Naco royalty, but _wow_!'

Kim deflated a bit. Mr. Matter's check, popping to the surface in her life again. As distracted as she'd been, angsting over the breakup, she must have put the check into her purse while moving this and that around her room, and not even noticed. 'Oh... that.' she said. 'I was going to throw it away.'

Ron sputtered. 'Throw it away? Are you nuts?'

'I got it while I was in Riddleton with Probable.' she grimaced. 'It was from one of his clients - _villain_ money. There's no way I could...'

'But this is _perfect_!' Ron said, staring down at the check. 'This is like _karma_! Dr. Drakken stole my Naco money and used it to try and make a doomsday machine. We can take this money from the bad guys and use it to _help_ people!'

Kim stared at him for a few seconds before snapping her eyes back to the road.

Ron sensed her staring and shrugged. 'You know - hopefully _without_ the epic failure.' he ended. 'I mean, look at all the damage Monkey Fist did with those statues, and with that _big_ one that slam-danced through Middleton. A whole bunch of places got messed up. This could help set things right again.'

Kim almost started crying again. She'd been fretting over what to do about this for days. And once again, it had to be Ron who cut through all the nonsense to provide a simple solution. 'Anonymous.' she said.

'Uh, _what_ about us?' said Ron.

'_Anonymous_.' said Kim again. 'We donate, but we do it secretly so no one knows who it came from.'

'Oh. OK.' said Ron, sounding a bit confused.

'And we have to make sure some of it gets used to help Monique's family.' she added. 'The place where her mom works got hit.'

'Yeah. Yeah.' said Ron, nodding. 'And some of it goes to get us some Nacos, right?'

Kim smiled. 'No.' she said. She heard Ron groan in disappointment. 'And Ron?'

'Hmm?'

'I love you.' And she took one hand off the steering wheel again, curling her fingers around his.

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It was late in the evening. From the kitchen, Mrs. Dr. Possible heard the front door closing, and a soft patter of footsteps heading toward the living room. She was sure it was Kim returning from her mission. She dreaded seeing the look of haunted sadness on her face, but as a mother she couldn't help wanting to try and comfort her.

She walked into the living room and saw Kim, lying on the couch on her stomach, her chin propped up on one palm. Mrs. Dr. Possible stared, for she could tell something had changed. The look of deadness and misery had vanished. Instead, Kim was staring dreamily off into an unseen distance, idly tracing the finger of her other hand in small circles on the cushion in front of her. A contented, almost dopey smile was on her face and her eyes were glazed as if she had been administered ether.

'Kim?' She said hesitantly. 'Are you all right?'

'Hmm-mmm.' Kim said off-handedly. Then she said, 'Mom... isn't Ron just the greatest?'

Mrs. Dr. Possible raised an eyebrow. Her mother's intuition was now screaming that something wonderful had happened, and that everything was all right again. But she couldn't resist testing to make sure. 'Ron? The _greatest_?' she said, trying to sound doubtful. 'That's saying a bit much, isn't it?'

'No.' said Kim flatly, without even looking at her. 'He's sweet, and brave, and forgiving, and he's so _cute_...'

Mrs. Dr. Possible fought back a smile. 'Maybe.' she said. 'Still... the greatest? Some people at your school don't think so.'

'Yeah, well they can...' Kim started, and there was suddenly a ferocious look on her face. But it quickly disappeared as if Kim was remembering who she was talking to. 'They just don't understand him.' she finished, her voice sinking back into a purr. 'Not like _I _do...'

Kim was nodding, still staring off at nothing, still tracing her finger on the couch. Finally she said, 'Mom... isn't Ron just the _greatest_?'

Mrs. Dr. Possible smiled. 'Of course, dear.' she said quietly. Then she left the room and went back into the kitchen, trusting that Kim wouldn't notice if she was there anymore or not. Then she checked to make sure no one else was in the room. She clenched her fist, pumped her arm and whispered one word.

_'Yes!'_

_(Not Quite) The End_

_Coming Soon:  
Closing Credits_

_Riddle me this: Why didn't the Kim Possible TV series have a 'Senior Prom' episode?_

_ Author: Over the course of the story, several reviews thought I was being too hard on Team Possible, and that I making Team Probable out to be vastly superior, by handing them a number of victories against Kim. The way Grimm kept making her life miserable with his schemes was considered by some to be proof that he was 'better' than her, which many readers (who adore Kim) found vexing._

_ But now, as the story winds down, in this chapter Grimm and Team Probable have helped Kim and Ron out in a big way. So I pose yet another riddle to the readers on top of all the other riddles I've given: Which team really 'won' in the end?_

_ Was it Team Probable - by acting behind the scenes and setting up yet another trap (of sorts) for Kim and Ron? Or was it Team Possible - because in the long run, Team Probable did a good deed, thereby moving them away from evil? This is a riddle I will leave in the hands of the readers..._

_ But as you see from above, the story is still not quite over. With a tale this long, and as a reward to everyone who stuck with the story these three long years, I wanted to do something different, and make a closing credit video. There won't be much text, but if it works I'll supply a youtube link for you to enjoy a number of special drawings that answer the end chapter riddle..._

_Blackfoot Name Guide:_

_Kim Possible: Mi'kksiistsikomma (pronounced mick-see-ist-sih-koo-mah. = 'red thunder')  
Ron Stoppable: Ipi'sskinao'siwa (pronounced ih-pih-sis-key-naw-sih-wah. = 'screams a lot')_

_Rhonda Fatigable: Katasistsikoowa (pronounced kah-tah-sist-sih-koh-wah = 'never gets tired')  
Grimm Probable: Otaatoyiwa (pronounced oh-tah-toh-yih-wah. = 'the cunning fox')_

_Maze: Sskipoyiwa (pronounced sis-key-poh-yih-wah. = 'stands in darkness')_


	39. Ch 38: Closing Credits & A Final Riddle

A Friend In Darkness  
All Things Probable 3

A Kim Possible Fanfiction  
by Greg Fisk (aka "Slyrr")

Kim Possible is owned/copyrighted by Disney and its affiliates, etc. etc.

Chapter 38  
_Why wasn't there a 'Senior Prom' episode in the KP TV series?_

In the days that followed, Kim spent the passing time in a euphoric blur. She had other missions before the end of the school year, but they seemed fun because Ron was there. School was still tough, Barkin was still Barkin, and Bonnie was still snarky. But none of that mattered - because Ron was there.

She almost felt giddy at times, and had to fight to control it so she wouldn't act totally moonstruck when she saw him. Whether passing him in the halls between classes at school, or fighting alongside him on missions, she relished every moment she spent with him.

She'd often heard the saying, 'absence makes the heart grow fonder', but had never really understood it until then. Ron's disappearance, the long road of hardship and self-discovery she had endured to find him, had given her a new appreciation for him that she had never realized was so strong.

She found herself actually looking forward to doing homework, because it involved Ron being at her house, helping him to get caught up. The watchful eyes of her parents kept her focused on the homework itself, but being close to Ron somehow made going through books and solving problems feel as if she were curling up in front of a warm fireplace.

And there were other sources of good vibes as well. Monique had a definite spring in her step a few days after Kim and Ron had gotten back together. Kim didn't ask her why. She knew it was because the business where her mother worked had been given a grant by an anonymous source to rebuild and repair the damage caused by the Ubergolem.

It gave Kim a strangely warm feeling, knowing she had been able to donate Mr. Matter's money to help out her best friend as well as several others who had been affected by the golem attacks. Strange, because it was help she had given without any of the usual camera and media fanfare she got after her missions. But it felt good all the same.

What was more, the media had reported that several other philanthropists had heard of the anonymous fund, and donated to the repair effort as well. When Kim told Ron about it, he had offhandedly, but shrewdly said that sometimes all it took for people to pitch in and help out was for someone to lead the way.

( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - )

It was a short while after another school day. Kim and Ron were in a booth at Bueno Nacho getting a bite to eat before going off to their jobs. As the time drew towards when they had to leave, Kim sidled next to him and kissed him. Her surroundings seemed to fade away as she held his hand and their lips pressed softly together.

She finally drew back from him an inch or two, keeping his hand held tight in hers. 'Ron?' she said softly.

'Humnh?' Ron answered, sounding dazed.

'Next time order the butterscotch sundae.' she said.

'OK.' said Ron dreamily.

And she kissed him again.

'Ew!' came Bonnie's disgusted voice. She had been in line behind a few other students ordering their own meals, only a few feet away from the booth where Kim and Ron were seated. 'I'm _out_ of here, I just lost my appetite!' she said testily.

'Grow up.' said Kim between kisses, not even looking towards Bonnie.

With a growl of exasperation, Bonnie stormed out of the restaurant. Tara and a couple other members of the cheer squad followed her.

'Come on, they kept it clean.' said Tara fairly. 'It's sweet.'

Bonnie snorted. 'I hope they never break up again.' she muttered.

Tara was surprised. 'That was almost _nice_.' she said.

'It's not for _them_.' said Bonnie, tossing her hair. 'Breaking up and getting back together made them even _more_ disgusting than they were before. If it happens again, I don't think I could stand it.' And she stumped off in the direction of the mall.

( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - )

Like after the Diablo robot attacks, the world seemed to go back to normal rather quickly. Countries across the globe worked to repair the damage, and soon fell back into their normal patterns of quarrelling, rivalry and snarkiness.

But through it all, through school, missions, work and real life, Graduation was looming closer. Kim didn't dwell on it, because there still seemed like plenty of time before it happened. Ron was on track to finishing his homework. She was glad, because she wanted them both to graduate together.

Kim was coming home after cheer practice at the end of another school day. She was looking forward to later in the evening when Ron would arrive to continue with his homework. She was thinking wistfully about the moments when their hands might brush together to check some problems, or their heads would lean close while looking over a book...

'Mail, Kim.'

Kim went into the kitchen where her Mom was sifting through bills, coupon leaflets and other envelopes. On the counter was another pile of envelopes, and Kim sighed before scooping them up. 'More college applications?' she said. 'They're sending so _many_ - how can I make up my mind when they keep piling choices on me?'

'You'll manage.' said Mrs. Dr. Possible fondly. 'You always do.'

Kim was thumbing through the envelopes when she suddenly froze. Among the official looking college letters and a couple of credit card offers, there was a plain green envelope. It listed only her name, and in the place where the return address should have been, there was nothing but a bold, purple question mark.

After running it through her Kimmunicator scanner and determining it wasn't booby-trapped, she opened the letter and fished out a single sheet of paper. She looked it over for a few seconds, then shook her head. 'I don't believe this...' she muttered.

( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - )

Ron was over later in the evening. He and Kim were seated on the living room couch with school books and papers spread out around them on the coffee table and the cushions. At the moment though, Ron was reading through the letter.

_To Ms. Kim Possible:_

_ The DoD, working in conjunction with Black Ops, have arranged for a sanctioned return visit to the city of ? ? ? ? ? ?. This is in gratitude for your recent assistance in thwarting the golem attacks, and aiding the departments of National Security in defending the United States from the super villain known as Monkey Fist._

_ You, your partner Mr. Stoppable, and a select group of friends and relatives are therefore cordially invited to attend Senior Prom at ? High School. _

_ Should you accept this invitation, you agree to disavow any and all knowledge of the existence of said city, and place yourself under a non-disclosure agreement to never divulge this information to anyone. No electronic devices will be allowed, and all invited guests are to be informed that this is a simple VIP visit to another school._

_ Inform your computer technician, Wade Load, if you accept. Arrangements will be made through him, and one of our own experts._

_ Regards,_

_ ? ? ? ? ? ?  
_

Ron's mouth was wagging open as he finished. 'Is this from who I _think_ it's from?' he said.

'Oh yeah.' said Kim with a rolling of her eyes. 'Check out the post script.'

Ron looked and sure enough, there was a hand written note at the bottom of the type-faced letter.

_PS - Don't ask me why they're doing this._ _I'd just as soon let you rot in Middleton. So do us all a favor and tell the DOD to buzz off. - GP_

_PPS - As an added dis-incentive,_ _they're planning to make you sing during the talent portion. Where they got the idea you had any talent is a mystery to me._

Ron let out a short breath that might have been a chuckle. 'So...' he said hesitantly, 'Are we gonna go?'

Kim imitated his half-chuckle. 'I had enough of them while you were away.' she said. 'The only reason I'd want to go back is to bust them, but I get the feeling they're arranging the circumstances to make tracing them impossible - _again_.'

'Oh.' said Ron, putting the letter down.

Something about his voice made Kim pause. 'Do you _want_ to go?' she said.

Ron was scratching his head shyly. 'Well, the thing is, I never got to visit the place myself. I saw parts of it from the Spirit World, but it's not the same as being there.'

'But why would you want to?' said Kim.

'I know it would be awkweird.' Ron shrugged. 'But the prom rehearsal looked kind of fun. I'd like to see how the real thing plays out. Besides it's not the first time we've hung out with the bad guys. There was the time Drakken turned good. And Christmas when we had dinner with him. There was the time when Miss Go was in town, and when we helped Junior hook up with Bonnie...'

'Those were isolated incidents,' said Kim, leaning back into the couch. 'But... I _guess_ so. Still, having our Senior Prom in _Riddleton_?'

'Sure, why not?' said Ron. 'I mean, it's not like there are a bunch of people out there who would be wondering why we didn't have Prom in Middleton.'

'Maybe.' said Kim. 'And it does sound like it would annoy Grimm.' she said, mischievously. 'Assuming he's not trying to reverse-psyche us into going there as a trap.'

'With Wade setting it up, what could go wrong?' said Ron optimistically. 'Besides, how could they trap you? You can do anything!'

Kim found herself considering. 'Well... with the world's greatest backup along for the ride, I guess I would be safe.'

Ron blinked. 'World's greatest?' he said. 'Who?'

Kim pulled him suddenly into a tender kiss, which she held for several seconds before slowly letting him go. She stared deeply into his eyes, enjoying the pleasured but befuddled look on his face.

At last he blinked. 'Oh... _that_ guy.' he said, and relaxed as she swooped in for another kiss.

_'A-hem!'_ came a deep voice, noisily clearing his throat. Kim and Ron pulled apart as Mr. Dr. Possible walked through the room on his way to the kitchen. His newspaper was folded and tucked under his arm and he was staring at them with narrowed eyes. 'I can still have that space probe readied, young man.' he said firmly. 'Studying doesn't require that sort of contact!'

Ron skittered a couple feet away from Kim, saluting. 'Yessir, Mr. Dr. P!' he said nervously. Both he and Kim raised their books again and resumed the worksheets Barkin had given them. After a few minutes in silence, Ron said in a low voice. 'So... what do you think?'

Kim's eyes fixed on the letter and its envelope. The large bold question mark seemed to leap up at her...

_Author: Visit youtube_

_.com/watch?v=Nm5MWQv7KO8_

_to see my first-ever closing credit video for this epic story! Fanfiction doesn't let you post internal links (as far as I know) so use my author's webpage link to go to my illustrated fanfic page. There is a link there below the chapter 38 link for A Friend in Darkness. It's my first attempt at making a video, so be kind. Reviews can be left at the youtube site, and at under the story reviews. Should I have forgotten to include persons, please don't take it as a 'snub'. It's just that there are so many KP fans, and so many wonderful readers who have stuck with the story and kindly shared their thoughts on it, that some may simply be overlooked..._

_And after the closing credits - don't give up on the story quite yet. There's one last riddle I need to ask..._

_Coming Soon:_

**_What kind of wood is used to build the end of a story?_**


	40. Epilogue I: Just One Victory

**EPILOGUES:**

_Epilogue I:  
Just One Victory_

Dr. Drakken stormed into his lair. It was only a few days after their escape from Monkey Fist and Maze. With world communications interrupted, and many countries paranoid about their air space as satellite systems were restored, it had been a long, winding trip back. There was dust on the consoles, and a fresh spider web here and there in the corners.

'Bah!' he spat angrily. 'I knew this would happen if I was away from the lair for too long! Those pitiful excuses for henchmen have bolted on me!'

'What did you expect, Dr. D?' said Shego, who had jumped into one of the chairs surrounding the circular lab desk in the middle of the room. She started sharpening her nails, sticking up her foot as the chair swiveled. 'We were gone for over two weeks - without a paycheck, why should they _stay_?'

'Oh I _donno_.' said Drakken sarcastically. 'How about _loyalty_? _Honor_? Common villain decency?'

Shego rolled her eyes. 'Yeah - 'cause we villains are all about the _honor_.' she said. 'So - what? You want me to round them up again?'

Drakken tapped his chin thoughtfully. 'No...' he said slowly. 'I think the time has come for me to create a _new_ army of servants who will do my bidding without question!'

Shego glared. 'Hey - if you're thinking about hijacking that Monkey boy's _statue_ gimmick, forget it!' she said. 'I've had enough of statues to last me a lifetime!'

'Oh no...' said Drakken dreamily, and a familiar, eager smile was spreading across his blue, scarred face. 'I'm thinking of something else!'

'You're not going to do synthodrones again are you?'

'No!' Drakken snapped. 'One puncture and they dissolve! It's not like I can just ask the world nicely to put away all their pins and nails!'

'What about your Hypo-Soccer Aberrator?'

Drakken blinked. He'd quite forgotten about it - The Hypersonic Cerebral Acerbator - the device that had been wrecked when Monkey Fist and Maze had first turned up at the lair and conscripted his aid. He looked over at the circular desk, and the pieces of his device were still lying on the floor around it. The henchmen hadn't even bothered to tidy things up before they left.

'Feh!' he said. 'I'm so over _that_ idea!' And he remembered something tucked away in the labs, a formula that Team Probable had snatched for him a month ago, before this whole mess had started...

He took out a pencil and sketchbook and started scribbling, ideas and plans flowing in his mind. 'Ooo hoo-hoo!' he chuckled. 'Yes... a powerful new army! Not statues, not Synthodrones, and not robots! I'm thinking of something more... _organic_.'

And a feeling of building delight was growing in him as he drew out several stick figures of people, cringing in terror before an army of plants with fanged, venus fly-trap mouths...


	41. Epilogue II: Holding the Center

**EPILOGUES**

_Epilogue II:  
Holding The Center_

Ron was kicking back at Felix' house, watching TV. His homework and labor at Smarty-Mart only left him short stretches of leisure time. Most of that was spent with Kim, but he also wanted to spend some time with his other friends. So he'd gone to Felix' for a brief bout of Zombie Masters, and then watch some TV.

Though in truth, he wasn't really paying attention to what was on the TV. It was just meaningless background noise. His mind was still at the Riddleton Senior Prom, still dancing with Kim and holding her in his arms. He remembered the feel of her lips against his when they kissed after getting back home.

Felix was waving his hand in front of Ron's eyes. 'Dude, I'm glad you and Kim are cool again.' he said. 'But seriously, you look like a zombie - it's creeping me out.'

'Sorry dude.' he said. 'But have I mentioned how awesome KP is?'

'Several times.' said Felix, with a slightly tired edge to his voice.

'I know it's cheesy.' said Ron, 'Naco cheesy. But ever since we made up, I just feel closer to her than ever. Like maybe she and I are in it for the _long haul_, you know what I mean?'

Felix blinked, looking over at him from his wheelchair. 'Dude, are you thinking about _going steady_ or something?'

Ron didn't answer for a moment. 'I donno.' he said thoughtfully. 'Do you think she would?'

Felix shrugged. 'She seems pretty sweet on you right now.' he said. 'It would be cool if it lasts. But Graduation is coming up in a while.'

'What's Graduation got to do with me and Kim dating?' said Ron, puzzled.

'Ah, nothing.' said Felix. 'I mean, when Brick graduated, he gave Bonnie her walking papers. Everyone kind of expected him and Bonnie to keep dating after Graduation, but he outgrew her pretty fast.'

Ron bit his lip. 'He kinda did, didn't he?'

Felix shrugged. 'Sometimes graduating changes people.' he said. 'They grow up, they move on, they meet new people...'

Ron felt a chill inside him. 'They kinda do... don't they?' he said, and his voice getting quieter.

'Kim's been getting tons of college offers too,' he went on. 'You and her could wind up half-way across the country from each other in a few months, maybe half-way across the globe. Who knows what kind of crowd she could be running with at her college? Long-distance can be a relationship killer.'

'They can... can't they...'

'But hey, you and Kim have always been close.' said Felix, smiling again and clapping his hand on Ron's shoulder. 'You'll stay close, even if you _do_ wind up at different colleges!'

Ron said nothing, now lost in his thoughts. And like a visit from his Cousin Shawn, he felt his self-doubt starting to creep back into his mind. _ 'Nah...' _he thought. _ 'After everything we've been through? After what she said in the hollow? Kim wouldn't break up with me just because Graduation is coming... would she?'_

As if noticing it for the first time, he heard the TV speakers. It was a basketball game, and the announcer was calling a play.

_'Tough luck for the home team as the visitors score. Very embarrassing for the center player - the ball was stolen right out of his hands. Looks like the center couldn't hold...'_

Ron didn't understand why, but he felt a strange disquiet hearing these words, and they seemed to echo in his ears.

_center couldn't hold...  
center couldn't hold...  
center couldn't hold..._

Felix had wheeled over to the TV and was smacking the cable box. There was a burst of static and the sound and picture resumed. 'Sorry,' he said. 'Digital cable. Sometimes it stutters like that.'


	42. Epilogue III: Monkey Fist's Fate

**EPILOGUES**

_Epilogue III:  
What happened to Monkey Fist_

Grimm and Rhonda were heaving Monkey Fist back into the garage. The Riddleton Prom was over, and the Black Ops had bustled Team Possible and her entourage back to the sequestered locations where they were transported back to Middleton. Grimm and Rhonda were still dressed in their prom clothes.

There was a final rasping sound of stone against stone as they pushed him into an alcove between the work bench and a tool shelf. 'I'm a mess.' said Rhonda, brushing off dust marks and tugging at her hair. 'Even not moving, he's still giving me grief.'

But Grimm was looking sidelong at her. 'Forget it, you look great disheveled.'

'Shut up.' said Rhonda, but she was blushing furiously.

Mr. Probable was strolling by, pulling off his 'Chaperone' badge. 'Remember boy,' he said. 'I said you can't keep him here. The longer he stays, the bigger the risk. The DoD wants him dealt with, the sooner the better.' Then he disappeared inside the house along with Mrs. Probable.

Grimm sighed. 'I guess we can't put it off any longer.' he muttered. 'It was fun using him as a decoration at the Prom, but we have to figure out what to do with him.'

Rhonda was glaring at the stone figure. Clearly her memories of what Monkey Fist and Maze had done to her was still in her mind. 'Well he doesn't need to eat or breathe anymore.' she said. 'How about burying him in the backyard?'

Grimm smirked, glad that Rhonda still hadn't lost all her ruthlessness. 'Tempting.' he said. 'But I'm sure Maze is still on the hunt for his partner.'

Rhonda clucked her tongue. 'You said we need someone to guard him who's on the move all the time.'

Grimm nodded. 'And preferably someone who would do it without being any the wiser.' For several minutes, they both stood in silence in the musty garage, staring at Monkey Fist and thinking.

( - ) ( + ) ( - ) ( + ) ( - ) ( + ) ( - ) ( + ) ( - ) ( + ) ( - ) ( + ) ( - ) ( + )

Amy Hall heard a sprightly tune being played by the doorbell in her combination lair/laboratory. She had been in the middle of planning an experiment to combine a cat with a snuggie; but had gotten stuck trying to decide whether to call it a _cuggie_ or a _snat_. Neither one sounded all that good and she was wondering whether she should just make up a totally new name when the bell had rung.

She flounced to the entrance of her lair. 'Coming!' she sang, passing through several pastel-colored hallways, festooned with pictures of her various experiments. She tapped the security keypad, which was bright pink, and the door hissed open. 'What can I do for you on this Cuddle-riffic day...?' she started, but stopped abruptly.

There was no one on the doorstep, only a large object covered with a sheet. She leaned left, and then right, looking past the object in front of her, but the walkway through the grounds was empty, and no vehicles were in sight either up or down the roads.

She turned her attention back to the object on her doorstep, and saw a piece of paper pinned to the sheet. She pulled it loose and began to read.

_To DNAmy:_

_ Just touching base after the job you hired us for a while back. We saw this and thought you might like it as a gift to thank you for being such a great client. Remember us if you need anything. - TP_

'Oooh, how nice of those kids, giving me a present!' she said delightedly. 'I wonder what it could be...?' She pulled off the sheet and stepped back.

It was a statue of a man with monkey hands and feet. His hands were stretched out as if reaching for something, a dark expression on his face.

'Why it looks just like my little hunny-monkey!' she said. 'So much detail!' A sudden thought occurred to her. She had a room in her lair that she devoted to pictures, sculptures and press clippings of Monkey Fist, and she started backing inside again through the door. 'Now don't you go anywhere!' she said, pointing and smiling at the statue. 'I'll just fetch a hand truck from the lab - your wittle Amy has the _perfect_ place for you! Oh - maybe even a world tour would be fun!'

While DNAmy disappeared back inside her lair, Monkey Fist remained petrified and silent on her doorstep. And if his expression seemed somehow more sour than it had a moment ago, no one was there to notice the change...


	43. Epilogue IV: The End Begins

_Special shout-out to 'AmericanGecko', who was the 600th review for this epic story!_

**EPILOGUES**

_Epilogue IV:  
What happened to Maze_

Maze staggered through a field in the darkness of night. It was raining, with thunder rumbling around him, and rippling cascades of lightning flashed through the storm clouds above. He was soaked from head to toe, but he didn't care.

After all his labors, after all his planning, he had failed. Monkey Fist was gone. The Ultra-Atmospheric Jammer was destroyed. All his golem slaves were released, and he was alone again. To have come so close, to have had the entire world literally in his clutches - only to have it slip away - because of that _girl_.

All his dreams - all his ambitions - everything lay in ruins. Even the Great Bear had forsaken him. And an anger without hope tore at his spirit with more ferocity than the surrounding tempest. He reached the crest of a hill and stumbled, falling to his knees and gasping in the mud.

_'Is there no one I can turn to?'_ he howled to the night sky. _'Will I never have my revenge...?'_

But even as he looked up into the darkness, he saw another light. But this light was not pale blue, like the lightning bolts that flashed beneath the clouds. This light was red - and shone from _above_ the storm.

Then the clouds were split apart. A beam of piercing red lanced down from the sky and smote the earth in a field not far from where Maze stood. The shadow shaman gasped and threw himself down, rolling back several feet as the force of the blast wave swept over him. He felt stinging fragments of earth strike against his skin as he tumbled back down the hill, and there was a mighty roar of sound.

Then all was quiet again, except for the spattering noise of the rain and the wind. Maze crawled slowly back to the top of the hillside, and his mouth fell open in amazement.

The field beyond was ablaze with fire. The raindrops hissed where they struck the earth, but from his vantage point, Maze could tell that this explosion was not natural. The beam had carved the earth and left a huge, but clearly discernable mark, which was lined with flames that glowed red through the night.

And the mark was shaped like a hawk.

A _war hawk_.

The End


End file.
